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THE PRACTICAL CONDUCT OF PLAY 



IHome ant) Scbool Setter 

Edited by PAUL MONROE 



Curtis : Education through Play. 

Curtis : The Practical Conduct of Play. 

HowERTH : The Art of Education. 

GooDSELL : A History of the Family as a Social 
and Educational Institution. {Preparing.) 



THE PRACTICAL CONDUCT 
OF PLAY 



BY 



HENRY S. CURTIS 

'I 

FORMER SECRETARY OF THE PLAYGROUND ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 

AND SUPERVISOR OF THE PLAYGROUNDS OF THE 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

AUTHOR OF "PLAY AND RECREATION IN THE OPEN COUNTRY" 
AND "EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY" 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1915 

All rights reserved 






Copyright, igis. 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1915. 



J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



JUL I 1915 
©CI,A406525 



> 

^ 



DeMcation 

TO THE 

PLAY-LEADERS 

WHO BRING TO THEIR WORK THE LOVE OF 
CHILDREN, THE JOY OF COMRADE- 
SHIP, AND THE SPIRIT 
OF PLAY 



PREFACE 

This volume is intended as a textbook for those who are 
preparing themselves for playground positions and as a prac- 
tical manual for all who have to do with the organization 
of play, whether as parents, as teachers, as playground direc- 
tors, or as supervisors. To this end the aim has everywhere 
been to give definite detailed information and suggestions 
such as can be easily followed and will be helpful in the daily 
work of the director. 

It is not, however, a manual in the ordinary sense, as it 
contains matter theoretical as well as practical and seeks to 
show general principles as well as specific ways in which 
playgrounds may be improved. 

The book has grown out of the experience of the author 
during the last sixteen years. During this time he has been 
a general director of playgrounds in New York City, Supervi- 
sor of the playgrounds of Washington, D.C., and Secretary 
of the Playground Association of America. Moreover, dur- 
ing the recent years he has visited the principal play systems 
both in this country and abroad, has given courses at many 
normal schools and universities, and has organized the move- 
ment in some sixteen different cities. 

The author wishes to express his gratitude to the following 
individuals and organizations for the pictures used in illus- 
trating this volume : the Playground and Recreation Asso- 
ciation of America; the Recreation Commission of Los 
Angeles and of the District of Columbia ; Mr. William Lee of 



viii Preface 

New York ; the Board of Education of New York ; the Park 
Department of New York; the Bath Department of New 
York ; Supt. William Wirt of Gary, Indiana ; Mr. W. Francis 
Hyde, the Department of Child Hygiene, Russell Sage Founda- 
tion ; Miss Charlotte Rumbold of St. Louis ; Dr. Peabody of 
Groton; Dr. Lory Prentise of Lawrenceville ; Mrs. Henry 
Parsons of New York ; and The South Park Commissioners 
of Chicago. 

His thanks for permission to reprint portions of certain 
chapters in this book are due also to: The American City; 
The Survey; The New England Journal of Education; Mind 
and Body; and The Playground. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Play Movement i 

II. Getting Started . . 8 

III. The Construction of the Playgrounds ... 19 

IV. Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes . . 42 
V. The Play Equipment 66 

VI. Swimming Pools 97 

VII. The Field House no 

VIII. The Organizer of Play 120 

IX. The Training of Play Directors 151 

X. Playground Programs 163 

XI. The Playground Attendance 176 

XII. A Curriculum of Play 197 

XIII. Team Games 207 

XIV. Miscellaneous Activities 217 

XV. The Play Festival 241 

XVI. Discipline 264 

Bibliography 283 

Appendix I . • 287 

Appendix II 303 

Index 327 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Tenement Playground ...... 

Mothers' and Babies' Playground, New York City . 

Drinking Fountain, South Park System, Chicago 

Echo Park Playground, Los Angeles, Calif. 

Wading Pool, Children's Section, Echo Park Playground, Los Angeles. 

Calif. 

Children's Wading Pool, Armour Square, Chicago . 

Playing with Blocks, Mothers' and Babies' Playground, New York 

A Combination Frame in Providence, R.L 

The Slide at Emerson School, Gary, Indiana .... 

Giant stride, Jefferson School, Gary, Indiana .... 

Receiving Bathing Suits, Davis Square, Chicago 

Swimming Pool, Armour Square, Chicago .... 

Girls' Day at the Emerson School, Gary, Indiana 

Athletic Recreation Center, 26th and Jefferson Streets, Philadelphia 

Indoor Baseball at Gary, Indiana 

A Dutch Dance at Gary, Indiana ...... 

80-yard Dash, Athletic Meet, East Park, Worcester, Mass. 
Dodge Ball at Gary, Indiana ....... 

Three Deep, Girls' Playground, New York City 

Volley Ball. Delegates to the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Play 

ground Association of America at Play, Washington, D.C. 
Chelsea Park Playground, New York City 
Camp Stecher. Boys' Camp, Smithtown, Pa. . 

Maypole Dances, Hartford 

Boy Scouts Making Fire ....... 

Camp Fire Girls in Camp at Fort Pickens, Fla. 

Boston Evening Centers Orchestra, East Boston, 1912-1913 



Play Festival at Worcester 

Play Festival, Hazard Playground, Los Angeles, Calif. 
Slausen Playground, showing Field House and Boys' Section beyond 
Los Angeles, Calif. • • 



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PRACTICAL CONDUCT OF PLAY 



CHAPTER I 

THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

At the time the Playground Association of America was or- 
ganized in Washington in 1906, there were less than twenty 
cities in the United States that were maintaining playgrounds, 
and in some of these the play was unsupervised. In the 
Playground Year Book for 1913, it is stated that there were 
during that year three hundred forty- two cities with play- 
grounds under regular paid workers, but by including the 
cities which are carrying on their playgrounds through vol- 
unteer workers or caretakers, the total number is raised 
to six hundred forty- two. There are thus from twenty to 
thirty times as many cities that are maintaining playgrounds 
now as there were eight years ago. When we consider that 
this is indicative of what is taking place throughout the civil- 
ized world, it becomes evident that the organization of play 
is one of the new public functions that are coming in, and 
that every city and probably every country section must 
soon join the movement or be classed among the backward 
or decadent communities. Many of the cities are now main- 
taining their systems only during the summer, but the 
number of all-the-year-round playgrounds is increasing at 
the rate of about twelve per cent each season, and appar- 
ently these will soon be the rule. 



2 Practical Conduct of Play 

This rapid increase in the number of cities, however, by 
no means fully represents the actual development of the 
movement, for there has been a widening in the significance 
of the playground itself that has been no less marked than the 
increase in numbers. Whereas the first playgrounds were 
maintained during ^^^ or six weeks of the summer time 
only, and were meagerly equipped with heaps of sand, 
swings, and seesaws for the play of the little children, nearly 
all playgrounds now are maintained for eight or ten weeks at 
least, and the term is being constantly lengthened even in 
systems that have not yet adopted an all- the-y ear-round 
policy. To the equipment of the original playground have 
been added the giant stride, the wading pool, the swimming 
pool, the outdoor gymnasium, facilities for athletics, and in 
several systems field houses on a very magnificent scale. The 
city of New York has spent seventeen millions of dollars on 
its play systems during the last fifteen years. Chicago has 
spent thirteen millions in the last ten years, and the amount 
which the country as a whole is spending is increasing at the 
rate of nearly fifty per cent per year. 

PLAY IN CONNECTION WITH THE SCHOOLS 

As the result of this new interest in the organization of play, 
the schools throughout the country are probably now getting 
playgrounds nearly ^ twice as large as they were fifteen or 
twenty years ago. In a large number of systems these are 
kept open under paid supervisors during the summer and 
during the fall and spring while the weather is pleasant, and 
more and more play is getting into the regular program of 
the schools. It is impossible to say at present just how many 
of our systems already have regular play periods during the 



The Play Movement 3 

school time, but there are probably at least a hundred cities 
with one or more periods during the week, and there may be 
two or three hundred. In Gary, there are two or three periods 
each day during the first six years and one period a day during 
the next five. There is a very strong sentiment in educa- 
tional circles looking toward such a development in connection 
with our school systems everywhere. 

Nearly all of our larger summer schools are now giving 
regular courses of training in playground activities, and these 
always prove to be among the most popular courses for 
teachers. Play courses are also finding their way into the 
regular normal schools ; indeed, nearly all the larger normals 
of the North are now giving one or more courses in play, and 
everything seems to indicate that such training will soon 
become a part of the required preparation of all normal 
students. Most of these courses are thus far very inadequate, 
but they are improving from year to year a^d better facilities 
for practice are being provided, so that we may hope within a 
reasonable length of time to have fairly satisfactory training 
courses in connection with many of our normal schools and 
universities. 

This rapid development has not affected the playgrounds 
alone, but similar progress has taken place along a number of 
parallel lines, as the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls, 
siunmer camps, and various other activities which are develop- 
ing a love of nature, the open air, and a vigorous life. The 
Public School Athletic League was organized in New York 
City in 1905, and there are now probably more than a hundred 
cities in which athletics are organized under the Board of 
Education. As a result, not only are a vastly larger number 
of children taking part in contests, but the contests are of a 



4 Practical Conduct of Play 

higher order than those of ten or fifteen years ago. The school 
nearly everywhere is becoming a social center and is organizing 
music, dancing, gymnastics, civic discussions, and other similar 
activities which are furnishing recreation to the adults in the 
evening and an opportunity for carrying on the work during 
the winter when conditions are not suitable for outdoor play. 

PLAY AT HOME AND IN INSTITUTIONS 

This same general interest is manifesting itself in a larger 
development of play facilities in the home and the yard, and 
the equipment is also improving in quality as well as in 
quantity. Nearly all orphan asylums and similar institutions 
for children are now being equipped with fairly satisfactory 
apparatus, and there is everywhere a growing appreciation of 
the need of play for these dependent children. But thus far 
the organization has been very inadequate, and perhaps the 
greatest need that exists among any single group of children 
lies just here. 

PUBLIC RECREATION 

More and more we are coming to see that we all need to 
play whether we are old or young, that we cannot keep our 
mental sanity and poise without it ; and the recreation move- 
ment is coming to make provision for the play of adults as 
well as children. One hundred fifty-two school systems re- 
ported that during the year 19 13 their schools were open in 
the evening, as social centers. The participants are largely 
adults or working boys and girls. The gymnasiums in the 
high schools, the municipal gymnasiums and swimming pools, 
and the field houses in the parks are nearly ever)rwhere 
being opened at night and are being used in the main by 
young people in the teens or the twenties. A number of cities 



The Play Movement 5 

have been experimenting during the last four or five years 
with the municipal dance hall, and there is a general feeling, 
apparently, that the cities must at least regulate if not furnish 
these facilities for the social recreation of adolescents. Mov- 
ing pictures were shown as one feature in forty-eight play 
systems during 1913, and there is likely to be very rapid in- 
crease in the use of the moving picture in connection with 
social centers and field houses and more or less with the out- 
door playgrounds themselves. The pageant also is becoming 
increasingly popular throughout the country and is being used 
on many more occasions and on a very much larger scale than 
had ever been conceived of until the last few years. There 
is now a strong movement for a public celebration of our 
national holidays which will do away with the firecrackers of 
the Fourth and the heavy drinking of New Year's Day. The 
city of Boston has created a Department of Celebrations with 
a paid director in charge. 

RURAL RECREATION 

Interest in rural recreation is increasing also. The 
Y.M.C.A. now has about ninety county secretaries, and in all 
these counties organized atjiletics form a larger or smaller part 
of the activities of the associations. In probably from fifty to 
a hundred counties athletics are organized under the direction 
of the county superintendent, often with a play festival at 
some time during the year, and a considerable number of 
counties have the work organized through a local normal 
school. At Amenia, New York, there has been developed a 
great field day in which the whole county participates and 
which brings out many thousands. This has been so success- 
ful and has taken such a hold on the imagination of the 



6 Practical Conduct of Play 

country that it seems likely that similar celebrations will be 
developed in many other localities during the next few years. 
More and more the rural school is becoming a social center. 

OUR PRESENT STATUS 

It must not be thought, however, from anything that has 
just been said that we have anywhere at the present time 
an adequate play system, or that there is any city, except 
perhaps Gary, Indiana, which has really provided play for 
all its children. When we say that the city of Chicago 
has a school system, we mean that there is somewhere in 
Chicago a seat for every child of school age in the city, but 
the play system of Chicago is not reaching more than from 
ten to twenty per cent of the children who are old enough 
to use it, and there is probably no system in the country 
that is reaching more than thirty to forty per cent, except 
where play is put into the curriculum of the school. 

SOURCES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

If we ask ourselves whence this movement and why it has 
developed as it has, the sources and reasons are fairly evident. 
The play movement in this country apparently owes its be- 
ginnings to an inspiration from Germany. Its ultimate 
sources, however, lie in the constitution of our civilization, 
and it must have come from the very nature of things, whether 
we received any stimulus from the outside or not. There 
are three main causes of the play movement : they are, the 
increasing congestion of our cities, which has made unor- 
ganized play more and more difficult; the new psychology, 
which has shown us that play is the fundamental attitude of 
the child's mind toward the world, and that out of his play 



The Play Movement 7 

issues most of his early training ; and the new sense of social 
responsibility of the strong for the weak, which is developing 
apace all over the world. The play movement in Germany 
is primarily a physical movement looking to the strengthen- 
ing of the race. In this country it has been primarily social, 
and its chief aim, apparently, has been to keep the children 
away from temptations and to give them right motives and 
habits. 



CHAPTER II 

GETTING STARTED 

Boston was the first city in this country, apparently, to 
begin the organization of play, but, so far as we are able to 
judge, the movement in Boston had very little influence upon 
the rest of the country, and the beginnings in New York and 
Philadelphia cannot be directly traced to anything that 
Boston had done. 

Probably ninety-five per cent or more of all the play sys- 
tems in the United States have been started by private organi- 
zations. During the first years it was nearly always a com- 
mittee of a mothers' club, a woman's club, or some sort of 
civic organization which took the initiative, but during the 
last few years the tendency has been more and more toward 
the organization of a playground or recreation association. 
Where the movement has been one for a school playground, 
the mothers' club or the parents' association has often been 
able to undertake it and carry it on until the school board was 
ready to take it over. 

A PLAYGROUND AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION 

A playground and recreation association is nearly always 
more effective than a committee of a woman's club, because 
an association organized for this purpose can devote sufficient 
time to it, while a woman's club probably has a number of 
other purposes. It is also desirable that an organization that 

8 



Getting Started 9 

is semi-public in the beginning, and always becomes public 
sooner or later, should consist of men as well as women and 
should be representative of all of the interests of the city. 

Organization has been the secret of much of the social prog- 
ress of the last decade, and if twenty-five or thirty influential 
people will stand together to promote the play movement in 
any city, its future is assured. In getting started, it is oft- 
times possible to have one of the field secretaries of the Play- 
ground and Recreation Association of America come to the 
city and help to organize the first meeting and get people 
together. 

Playground associations are usually organized with the 
same officers as other associations, and in addition a board of 
directors of from fifteen to twenty members. These direc- 
tors carry on all the business of the association, and, to all 
intents and purposes, are the association, since they usually 
have monthly meetings, while the association meets only once 
a year. This board should be made to represent all the im- 
portant organizations of the city, as, the school board, the 
park board, the common council, prominent women's clubs, 
labor unions, the chamber of commerce, and other influential 
bodies. The president is apt to be the determining factor in 
the success of the association and should be selected on the 
basis of his personal and political influence and his willingness 
to give time and effort to the enterprise. It is a mistake to 
select a person for this position merely because he is prominent 
or wealthy if he is not manifesting a genuine interest in the 
enterprise or a willingness to give a part of his time to its 
promotion. The treasurer should usually be an officer in one 
of the well-known banks, and one of the vice presidents 
should be a good second choice for president. All of the 



lo Practical Conduct of Play 

members of the Board of Directors should be placed on com- 
mittees so far as possible and given some definite work to do, 
as otherwise their interest is not likely to be maintained. 

Very often the promoters have felt that the Playground 
Association is a purely temporary organization and that its 
work should be over as soon as the city begins to make 
appropriations for the movement. Experience has proved, 
however, that it is no less needed after the work comes under 
public control than it is in the beginning. It should see that 
the work is not mismanaged by the city, that the proper people 
are placed in charge, and that adequate appropriations are 
made. No city starts out with a complete system and constant 
stimulation is needed to secure expansion so that it may serve 
the whole city and new features may be introduced as they 
are needed. The main purpose of the association, however, 
should always be to educate public opinion so as to secure 
as general a support of the movement as possible. 

There were during the year 19 13 one hundred twenty-one 
cities in the United States whose playgrounds were main- 
tained under a playground or recreation association. In a 
considerable number of these cities the funds administered 
were public funds, although the association was a private 
one. There is always prejudice against this procedure, but 
ofttimes it is the best that can be done in the beginning. 

The Survey. — When it has been decided to organize a 
play movement, one of the first things that should be done is 
to find out as fully as possible the actual needs ; or, in other 
words, to make a survey or study of the situation, in order 
that the system that is planned may be built upon an inti- 
mate knowledge of conditions. 

There are two kinds of knowledge which should be secured 



Getting Started ii 

through the survey. First, it should be determined what are 
the actual play facilities in connection with the schools, the 
parks, or any other available places on public or private 
property. It is usually wise to begin by securing a plan, 
drawn to a scale, of all of the school yards in the city with a 
statement of their conditions of surface and other pertinent 
facts. Then all the other public property in the city that 
might be used and any vacant ground that might be pur- 
chased should be plotted in the same way. It is wise to put 
these areas on a school or outline map, so that one may see 
at a glance the school population and at the same time the 
available play space. These drawings may often be made by 
the children in the upper grades as a regular lesson. 

Next, it is very important to find out just what the children 
are doing in the time after school, in the evenings, and during 
the summer, for this shows the actual need. 

This information having been secured, a definite plan should 
be made for a play system which will cover the city. This 
should usually mean the enlargement of certain school grounds 
and the securing of one or more larger grounds, in connection 
with either the schools or the parks, for general athletics 
and recreation for adolescents and adults. 

The Educational Campaign. — Having found out the need 
of the city and made a plan for a system that would meet this 
need, the next step should be an educational campaign to 
secure popular support for it. Public speakers of promi- 
nence are often brought on to discuss the subject before in- 
fluential groups of people, articles are written for the papers, 
and accounts of the work, especially in neighboring or rival 
cities, are published. It is always an advantage for the 
Playground Association to start one or more playgrounds, so 



12 Practical Conduct of Play 

that people may see a playground in operation. One of the 
most effective methods is the play festival, as this makes an 
attractive spectacle and often calls out large numbers who 
realize for the first time what play means and become en- 
thusiastic about it. 

If a city is undertaking a campaign for the inauguration of a 
playground system, it should always open a correspondence 
with the Playground and Recreation Association of America 
at I Madison Avenue, New York City. Mr. H. S. Braucher 
is Secretary, and the Association has at its command literature 
which can be used in campaigns of this kind. Moreover, it 
may be possible for the Association to send one of its Field 
Secretaries to the city to assist in getting the movement 
under way. 

Securing the Funds. — It is usually possible to secure the 
funds for a school playground in the beginning by holding an 
entertainment or a series of entertainments for this purpose, 
and ofttimes this is the very best way to begin. In the case 
of a rural school, it will nearly always be necessary to get 
started in this way. It involves very little trouble. The 
entertainment is worth while in itself, as any social occasion 
in a country community nearly always is, and the children 
feel a greater interest in the playground if they have helped 
to earn the money by which it is provided. For the play- 
ground of a city school, money may be raised either by enter- 
tainments or by securing contributions from the patrons. 
Both of these methods are comparatively easy. If two or 
three of the patrons will themselves make a liberal contribu- 
tion to begin with and will see the others, there will rarely be 
any trouble to secure enough money for a beginning. I have 
seen $250 subscribed in this way in a single evening from 



Getting Started 13 

the patrons of a colored school in the South. Very often the 
Mothers' Club or the Parents' Association takes the entire 
responsibility for securing the necessary funds. 

A financial campaign is often one of the most important 
steps in promoting a play system, because, if contributions 
are to be secured, prospective contributors must be convinced 
of the value of the movement in the beginning, and the persons 
who secure the contributions must convince first themselves 
and then the others. The person who has given to a move- 
ment feels an increased interest in it, and he is all the more 
willing that the city should support it in the future. Very 
often play associations have undertaken to raise much too 
small a sum through their campaigns. It is essential to the 
success of such a campaign that there should be some definite 
purpose in view, and that the people who have it in charge 
shall be of such a sort that their very names are an assurance 
to the public that the money will not be misspent. It is quite 
as easy in most cities to raise ten thousand dollars on a ten 
thousand dollar plan, as it is to raise one thousand on a thou- 
sand dollar plan, and the city cannot be stirred or made 
enthusiastic by a small project. The play movement is no 
longer an experiment and it is not necessary to raise the money 
for a single playground as a demonstration. It is difficult to 
secure the cooperation of influential people or the newspapers 
if the purpose is merely to provide a playground in one sec- 
tion ; but the idea of providing playgrounds for all the children 
of the city appeals to the imagination in a much stronger way 
and secures a far wider support. 

The steps that are necessary if the money is to be secured 
from the city are almost the same as when it is to be raised 
by private subscriptions. In each case, there must be a 



14 Practical Conduct of Play 

definite plan, there must be a realization of needs, and there 
must be a general assurance that the people who are making 
the request are competent to spend the money properly and 
secure results. The School Board should always be asked to 
support the school playgrounds, and usually the Common 
Council should be asked to make a separate appropriation. 
It is best to make the request even if there is very little likeli- 
hood of its being granted. The presentation of the subject 
is good advertising, and the refusal of the city is the best 
ground for an appeal for private contributions. The presen- 
tation itself will help to convince the city officials of the need, 
and will probably set other people to talking to them about it. 

A RECREATION COMMISSION 

The Playground Association grows very naturally into a 
public commission as time goes on and regular appropriations 
are given for the work. Probably the best recreation com- 
mission that can be appointed in most cases is the executive 
committee of the playground association. There have been 
a great many recreation commissions which accomplished 
little, largely because the members were appointed without 
having any special interest in the playgrounds or information 
about them; but where the men who have already been 
active are thus recognized and given a public position, a 
recreation commission is ofttimes a very good way to admin- 
ister the movement. 

The chief reason for choosing a commission for administer- 
ing a play system is to unite in this way all the playgrounds — 
school, municipal, and park — under the same head, thus 
saving duplication of effort and enabling one supervisor to 
oversee the entire movement. This, however, is apt not to 



Getting Started 15 

work out in practice, because public departments are very 
jealous of having their activities administered through an 
out3ide commission. It is almost impossible for anybody 
except the school board to maintain adequately the play 
activities on the school grounds, for the reason that these 
activities are more and more becoming a part of the regular 
school work and are in general under tjie director of physical 
training of the school system. Moreover, the park depart- 
ment is oft times jealous of having activities within the parks 
administered by other departments, and there are inherent 
elements of friction in almost any sort of commission that may 
be organized to administer play in different departments. 

In order to avoid this friction the recreation commission 
has often been organized with a member from the school 
board, a member of the park board, and some other interested 
public person in charge ; but it is believed not to have been 
altogether successful in most cases. 

PARK AND SCHOOL BOARDS 

When the city takes over the movement, it usually takes 
it over through the recreation commission, the park board, 
or the school board. The park board is inevitably interested 
in the organization of play, because the parks are playgrounds 
for adults, and nearly everywhere they are furnishing facilities 
for athletics, swimming, and the common games. Municipal 
playgrounds are usually small parks devoted to play. 

The school board is interested because it has, or ought to 
have, playgrounds in connection with all of its schools, it is 
coming everywhere to organize play at recesses, and more 
and more play is finding its way into the curriculum. 

There is no very general agreement thus far as to which 



1 6 Practical Conduct of Play 

department should administer the play, but it seems inevitable 
that more and more it will fall to the share of the Board of 
Education. But the really determining factor in the efficiency 
of the playgrounds is not usually the method of organization, 
but the supervisor of the system. 

THE RECREATION SUPERVISOR OR SECRETARY 

As Joseph Lee has said, if a city can get a capable supervisor, 
he will secrete the system ; and it is certain that no city that 
has not had a capable supervisor has ever had a notable 
system. Any amount of money spent without such a person 
is sure to produce inadequate and perhaps undesirable results. 

There is at the present time a large demand for supervisors, 
and there are very few people available who are at all ade- 
quately trained. Ofttimes Boards of Trade insist that local 
men shall be employed, but in most cases there is no local man 
who has had sufficient preparation. Their insistence is usually 
due to the fact that they do not realize the nature of the work 
demanded of a supervisor or his significance to the city. 

In general, it has been felt that the person in charge of a 
play system should be a physical trainer, but this is plainly 
open to discussion. As the person in charge will have to 
organize and plan a system, as well as to administer athletics, 
plays, games, folk dancing, swimming pools, industrial work, 
gardens, story telling, kindergartens, excursions, camps, and 
laborers, it is absolutely essential that he should be a capable 
organizer and administrator. He should be a sociologist, a 
psychologist, a pedagogue, a physical trainer, a kindergartner, 
a specialist in manual arts, a musician, a mechanic, and several 
other things. In actual fact, the supervisors of the country 
have been selected from all of these fields ; some of them are 



Getting Started 17 

physical trainers, some are social workers, some are manual 
training men, some are mechanics, and many have been 
teachers. The person in charge must know enough about 
physical training to know whether the athletics and games 
are properly conducted and the folk dances properly given, 
but it is not necessary that he should himself be a physical 
trainer, though it is desirable that he should be skillful in all 
the things which the playground administers. 

The playground supervisor who has charge of a system 
which is at all adequate, and which conducts not only play- 
grounds but also social centers during the school year, may do 
more than any other person in the city to determine the social 
spirit and the morals of the next generation. One who is to 
take this responsible position must be a capable person and 
should receive a salary not less than that of the principal of 
the high school and but little less than the superintendent of 
schools himself. 

The most important work of the supervisor is in the direct 
oversight of the play leaders themselves, and in the securing 
of competent people in the beginning. If the supervisor 
inherits the system, he will find the majority of the workers 
inadequately prepared, and, if he is initiating a system, he 
will also find it difficult to secure a body of trained play direc- 
tors, with the funds at his disposal, so that it will probably 
be necessary for him to train the workers himself. For this 
purpose it will be best for him to hold play institutes or to 
conduct courses during the year, but the finishing touches 
must always come through the personal suggestions and criti- 
cism of the supervisor on the spot ; for this reason he needs 
those same qualities of insight and skillful suggestion which 
are required in a capable school principal or superintendent. 



1 8 Practical Conduct of Play 

Ofttimes the play supervisor comes to a city and assumes 
his duties before there are any playgrounds, and the great 
work before him is, as has been suggested, to secrete the 
system. He has to create such an interest and enthusiasm in 
the city as will demand the provision of play and appropria- 
tions sufficient to maintain it. This means that he must also 
be a promoter, that he must be able to speak in public, 
to organize meetings, banquets, and other means of publicity, 
to secure the cooperation of the press in keeping the matter 
before the public, and in manifold ways to enlist the coopera- 
tion of the people of the city. He will have to deal with many 
other public departments of the city, and he must have the 
saving grace of tact in order to prevent the frictions which so 
easily arise. 

In general, the supervisor must see that all of tjie activities 
are carried on successfully. He must formulate the general 
plan of things to be done, and carry it through to success. He 
must be able to maintain a state of discipline among the 
laborers and directors who are under his charge, and to in- 
spire directors, children, and parents with a desire to cooperate. 
The ultimate test of his work is that the playgrounds are 
well attended and that the activities carried on therein are 
giving the right sort of physical, social, and moral training. 
This is no small responsibility for any man to assume, and 
may not lightly be committed to the corner politician or 
to some pensionary of the system. 



CHAPTER III 

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLAYGROUNDS 

Before a play system can be inaugurated in any city, sites 
must be selected, the ground must be put in condition, the 
equipment erected, and everything placed in readiness. 
Probably the greatest weakness of our systems thus far has 
been that the preliminary work has not been carefully done, 
and that no detailed plan has been made by an expert who 
understood the nature of the activities to be provided for 
and the arrangement necessary in order to secure efficiency. 

THE SELECTION OF A SITE 

The Nature of the Ground. — Very often park boards have 
selected pieces of ground for playground purposes without 
realizing the difference between playgrounds and parks, 
purchasing hillsides or ravines with trees and perhaps an 
abundance of shade, but no suitable places for games. For if 
ground is to be used for athletics and general play, it should 
be nearly level, and the terracing of hillsides and filling in of 
ravines is usually a much more expensive proposition than is 
the purchasing of ground which is level to begin with. Not 
infrequently, also, pieces of ground have been bought which 
are cut ofE from the residence part of the city by railroads or 
congested street car lines. It can be taken for granted that 
any such playgrounds will have but a small attendance. 
Often, too, a site has been selected which has the open coun- 

19 



20 Practical Conduct of Play 

try or a business section on one or two sides. Naturally if 
people are living on only one side of the playground, there will 
not be more than half the attendance that is possible if there 
are residences on both sides. The ideal location for a play- 
ground is always in a section with residences on all sides, where 
the population is homogeneous, and where there are no street 
cars or railroads to prevent easy access to the grounds. 

The Dimensions. — While minimum standards have been 
more or less common abroad, thus far we have had no criteria 
in this country as to the size of playgrounds for either schools 
or cities. Such standards, however, are coming to be recog- 
nized, and we are now saying that every city school should 
have at least one full block of ground, and more than that if 
it is a large school and the ground can be secured ; that the one- 
room rural school should have at least two acres ; and that 
the consolidated school should have from five to ten acres. In 
regard to the municipal playgrounds in the cities, there has been 
no standard, and the size is generally determined practically 
by the amount of vacant space available. The smallest of the 
playgrounds of the South Park system is seven acres in area 
and the largest is sixty acres. For the future, Chicago has 
adopted as its standard a ground twenty acres in area, but it 
must be remembered that these playgrounds are parks as well. 

In the ordinary logic of events it would seem that the 
playgrounds of little children should be the yards of their 
homes ; those of school children should be the schoolyards ; 
and those of adults should be either parks or enlarged school 
grounds. These grounds for the older people will normally 
have a wide range of influence and should be large enough for 
all kinds of athletics, furnishing especially facihties for base- 
ball, football, tennis, swimming, and similar activities. 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 21 

PLANNING THE PLAYGROUND 

Probably less than one per cent of the playgrounds of the 
country thus far have been planned. In fact, I have never 
seen one that seemed to show evidence of that sort of care in 
arrangement that an architect would bestow upon the design 
for a building. Yet it is scarcely possible that we should have 
a really efficient playground unless such a plan has been made 
for it, and the efficiency of a large proportion of the grounds 
might be doubled by merely rearranging the equipment. 

Space for Equipment. — In general, the plan should place 
the apparatus and fixed equipment around the edges or in the 
corners, leaving the central space open for games. A small 
amount of apparatus may be made to monopolize a large 
space by placing it in the center, and a still more wasteful 
arrangement is to place it at the side but leave a wide alley 
between it and the fence. In general, especially when swings 
are so placed, this alley cannot be used for anything. It is 
necessary to place the equipment at the side, not only in order 
to economize space, but because there is much less danger of 
injury to bystanders than if it is placed in the center of the 
ground. Swings and giant strides should always be placed 
where there is little passing, so that children who are playing 
games or running about may not be struck. All apparatus 
should be so arranged that it can be easily observed by the 
director. 

The field house and swimming pool belong to all sections of 
the playground alike, and should be located in some position 
where they will be easily accessible from all quarters. 

Space for Games and Athletics. — Each game which is to 
be much played, such as indoor baseball, volley ball, basket 



22 Practical Conduct of Play 

ball, tennis, and the like, should be fitted with great care into 
the playground plan, so as not to take up more room than 
the game itself actually requires. It is usually best to fit the 
tether ball into some corner of the playground, if possible ; at 
any rate, into some small space not more than fifteen or twenty 
feet in diameter where it will fit snugly. The ring about the 
pole and the line which bisects it should be put in with either 
brick or concrete, in order that it may not need to be marked 
out constantly. 

If the playground is of any considerable size, there should 
be room for two or three tennis courts at least. The tennis 
court is thirty-six by seventy-eight feet in size, but where 
back stops are furnished, there should be about loo feet 
between the two back stops. If the playground has been 
surfaced in the manner described on page 8, all that will be 
necessary in laying out the ground is to cover the space 
chosen for tennis with a fine stone dust or sandy loam. In 
Germany, the common practice is to mark out the tennis 
courts with two-by-four's which are set plumb with the sur- 
face and painted white on the upper edge. This gives a 
permanent court which does not need to be marked out from 
day to day and is always in condition. In the North, these 
will have to be reset in the spring in all probability, unless 
they are spiked to deep posts, because the frost tends to 
heave them out of the ground ; but they make a very good 
serviceable court. The more common practice in this 
country has been to mark out tennis courts with strips of 
canvas or with line. Either of these methods is satisfactory, 
though the limed court requires constant remarking. At 
present many of the best courts are being made of asphalt or 
concrete with the lines in white paint. 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 23 

Volley ball requires little more space than the actual playing 
area, which is usually twenty-five by fifty feet, but which 
may well be thirty-five by fifty, or thirty-five by seventy. 
It is well to mark this court out, also, with two-by-four^s, or 
concrete so that the boundaries may be permanent. Posts, 
made of two-by-three Georgia pine or cypress, should be 
three feet in the ground and about eight feet out of it, 
with hooks for holding the net near the top. The same 
court may be used for both volley ball and basket ball by 
putting the basket ball standards at the ends. 

The basket ball court is thirty-five by seventy feet and 
may well be marked out in the same way, if there is much 
enthusiasm for the game. It also requires little more room 
than the actual playing space, and may be fitted snugly into 
any comer of proper size. 

During the last two or three years, a number of hand ball 
courts have been erected in the playgrounds of the different 
cities. These usually consist of a cement wall about twelve 
or fifteen feet high by twenty feet wide, with a floor or plat- 
form of cement about twenty feet square. This is a compar- 
atively expensive game thus furnished, but it is sure to be 
appreciated by the young men. Squash, of course, is similar, 
but has a much larger wooden ball and platform and is cor- 
respondingly more expensive. It is popular in England, but 
is not played much in this country. 

There should be a regular place for indoor baseball on both 
the girls' and the boys' playgrounds with the positions per- 
manently marked, as a rule. Bases stuffed with sand are very 
serviceable and may well be furnished. Indoor baseball is 
usually played by the older boys and men outdoors on a 
thirty-five-foot diamond, by the girls on a twenty-seven-foot 



24 Practical Conduct of Play 

diamond. If the large ball is used, the twenty-seven- and 
thirty-five-foot diamonds are best; but if the twelve-inch 
ball, or even the fourteen-inch ball is used, with older 
fellows, it may be well to make the diamond a little larger. 

Along the side of the playground where there will be no 
danger of striking any one, there should be a place for quoits, 
as this is a game which is appreciated by the older people and 
helps to bring in the fathers in the evening. In both the girls' 
and the community playground it is well to have croquet. 

In the shade of the trees, if there are any, there should be a 
sixty-yard track with a jumping pit at the end about four 
feet wide and twenty feet along. This may be placed at the 
end of the regular running track, or beside it, or in any other 
convenient place at the side of the ground. The jumping 
pit should be filled with six or eight inches of sand, and it is 
best to mark off the distances of the Standard Test on the 
side of it. 

A circular running track surrounding an outdoor gymnasium 
occupies most of the space in the playgrounds both of New 
York and of Chicago. The circular track allows the young 
fellows to get exercise without supervision. It is useful in 
long-distance runs, such as do not usually take place in the 
playgrounds. I have been in the Chicago playgrounds dozens 
of times, but I do not remember ever to have seen any one 
running on these tracks. They have certainly not been much 
used in New York. In a playground system where athletics 
are systematically encouraged there is constant use of the 
straightaway track, but very little use for the circular track. 

Where a circular track is provided, it should be laid out 
around the ball diamond and made without a curb, so that it 
may interfere with play as little as possible. The circular 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 25 

track certainly is not worthy of the practical monopoly of 
the playground space which it often holds. It is expensive, 
space-consuming, and relatively idle as compared with the 
straightaway. Young children should not be encouraged to 
run long distances at speed, and the circular track is generally 
used only in long-distance running. 

Whatever we may think about the circular track, there can 
be Uttle dispute as to the value of the straightaway. The 
hundred-yard is used constantly in every playground where 
there is much encouragement of athletics. If there is room, it 
is well to have a two hundred and twenty yard track on 
which shall be located by fixed markers the twenty-j&ve, fifty, 
sixty, seventy-five, and one hundred yard dashes. 

SURFACING 

Surfacing is one of the most vexed problems of the play- 
ground builder, and there are few grounds at the present 
time where it is satisfactorily solved. The conditions require 
a surface which shall be reasonably smooth, which shall be 
springy under foot, which shall not contain large pebbles or 
cobblestones that may sprain the ankle or wear out the play- 
ground apparatus, and which shall not be muddy after a rain 
or dusty during the dry seasons. These are conditions which 
it is hard to meet. Many school playgrounds are surfaced 
with brick or cement or cinders or coarse gravel or macadam, 
all of which are very unsatisfactory. If the playground 
is large enough, probably grass is the best surface that can be 
provided, but in the more congested grounds, in the North at 
least, it is impossible to maintain a grass surface. The two most 
satisfactory surfaces that I know are those used in Chicago 
and in Philadelphia. In Chicago, the ground is lightly spread 



26 Practical Conduct of Play 

with torpedo gravel, which is a round fine gravel about the 
size of a double B shot. This, however, does not entirely 
prevent either mud or dust, and is far from being ideal. 
The most successful surface on the whole is the one that has 
been used in Philadelphia. There they excavate the soil to 
a depth of ten inches, and roll with a five-ton roller so as to 
give a smooth grade draining into catch basins at the side. 
This depression is then filled in with seven inches of coarse 
cinders, copiously sprinkled, and rolled with a five-ton roller. 
After this has been well leveled and compacted, three inches 
of fine broken stone are filled in and the top is covered 
with the very finest of stone grits. This surface is then 
sprinkled with a mixture of glutrin (about one gallon of glutrin 
to three of water), using about one half gallon to the square 
yard. The glutrin serves to compact and hold the material 
together, and makes it almost entirely dust proof. The 
cinders and broken stone, with the catch basins at the side, 
furnish adequate drainage, so that this surface is dry enough 
to use fifteen minutes after a heavy downfall of rain. 

FLOODING IN WINTER 

In the northern part of the country there should be some 
arrangement by which the drains can be stopped in the winter 
and the ground flooded for skating. This will require either 
a curb or a banking up of earth or snow around the outer edge 
of the ground. It is not necessary to have much water, as a 
skating pond is much more satisfactory where the water is not 
more than an inch or two deep ; there is no danger from the 
shallow pond, and since it freezes much more quickly it will 
often give two or three times as much skating as would be 
possible if the water were deeper. Much the largest attend- 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 27 

ance that I have ever seen in the Chicago playgrounds was 
on the skating ponds. 

LIGHTING AT NIGHT 

The principle of efficiency says that if we are to get ade- 
quate returns from our money we should use our equipment 
as fully as possible, and it seems almost sinful that any piece 
of ground that is available for play should lie idle during any 
waking hours in a city such as New York, or Chicago, or 
Boston. Merely by lighting a playground at night, its attend- 
ance is ofttimes doubled, and to all intents and purposes the 
city gets another playground of the same size as the former 
one, at only a small increase of cost. It can be said as a 
general principle that whenever a playground can be lighted 
for less than five per cent of its original cost, the city will be 
making a better investment by lighting the ground and main- 
taining it at night, than it has in its original daytime play- 
ground. Most playgrounds can probably be lighted for less 
than one per cent of the original cost, so that play facilities 
in the evening are actually furnished very much more cheaply 
than was the original playground. 

It must be remembered, also, that the evening play is a 
problem by itself, that the leisure time of the working people is 
in the evening, that it is then that temptation walks abroad 
in its most alluring form, and that most delinquency is begun. 
If the city is to furnish recreation for its working boys and 
girls, its men and women, it can be done only in the evenings 
and on Sundays. Wherever playgrounds have been ade- 
quately lighted, the pubHc has always responded, and the 
attendance has been as good during the evening as at any 
other time. With our new type of electric lighting it is now 



28 Practical Conduct of Play 

possible to play nearly all the games, including even tennis, 
in the evening. The Emerson School in Gary lights the boys' 
playground, which is about two acres in extent, at a cost 
of from $i.oo to $1.50 an evening. The wires should be 
brought in under ground if possible. 

DRINKING FOUNTAINS 

Ordinary bubble fountains should be furnished plentifully 

in playgrounds. 

THE FENCE 

There has been a considerable division of opinion as to 
whether or not the playground should be fenced. The chief 
arguments advanced against fencing are economy of space 
and of money and also the analogy of the park, where the pres- 
ent usage is against it. These arguments do not seem very 
convincing. If the playground is not fenced, the children 
do play on the adjoining sidewalk and in the street, but it was 
largely to avoid this that playgrounds were first created. 
The park analogy is not at all convincing, because park and 
playground have different uses. On the other hand, the 
reasons for fencing are very definite and, to me, entirely suf- 
ficient. They may be divided into three groups. The first 
is the protection of the children and the apparatus, the second 
discipline, and the third the spirit of the work — the mob 
psychology, if you will, of the fenced and the unfenced ground. 

A playground usually contains a good deal of apparatus 
that may be damaged by vandals. Older boys will sometimes 
get a grudge against a teacher for some reason and take it out 
on the apparatus; swing ropes will be cut, broken glass 
scattered about the ground, or the leather of the horse slashed 
with a knife. The greatest difficulty for every playground is 




Drinking Fountain, South Park System, Chicago. 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 29 

with the rowdies and others who come over to make use of 
it after hours. They often sit on the apparatus and whoop 
and yell and make themselves a nuisance generally. Some- 
times the girls and the boys make the playground a meeting 
place and it gets the credit of their disorder, bad language, 
and bad conduct. Where the playgrounds are fenced, the 
gates can be closed at the proper hour and every one excluded 
thereafter. Thus the fence serves to protect the apparatus 
and the neighborhood at night. It also serves to protect the 
children. Children who are playing are always Hkely to rush 
out heedlessly upon the street, perhaps in front of an auto or 
street car. Dogs from the street or runaway teams may dash 
up on the playground at any time. But, more serious than 
this, many pieces of apparatus are dangerous unless there is 
something to prevent the children from running through 
where other children are using them. The landscaping and 
flowers should be at the edge of the ground and cannot be 
protected without a fence. 

If a playground is unf enced, it is like a vacant lot to the child. 
It has no individuality, and is scarcely a thing by itself. In 
all of our conduct, we are subject to the constant suggestion of 
our surroundings. We would not use quite the same language, 
perhaps, in the church that we would in the hotel; in the 
school that we would in the barn. On the vacant lot we can 
do as we please ; any kind of language or conduct is appro- 
priate. When we have a fenced playground it becomes an 
institution, and our language and conduct must correspond 
with our conception of it. The only punishment that can well 
be inflicted on the playground is exclusion, and it is difficult 
to exclude the boy from a playground which is unfenced, 
and enforce the exclusion. However, the most important 



30 Practical Conduct of Play 

reason lies in the mob psychology of the place. If it is fenced, 
it becomes a place by itself, a unity, a real institution. Its 
spirit is retained and concentrated as by an outer epidermis, 
and it is easier to cultivate all the loyalties and friendships 
that play should develop. 

PLAYGROUND DIVISIONS 

It is generally agreed, also, not only that the playground 
should be fenced as a whole, but that the girls should be 
separated from the boys and the big children from the Httle 
children. In the Chicago playgrounds there is one section 
for children under ten, another for the older boys, and a third 
for the older girls. I doubt if the correct division according 
to ages has been made in Chicago, but whether the fences 
are there or not, some similar division of the children has to 
be maintained for the efficient conduct of the grounds. The 
large boys wish to play different games from the large girls 
and to play by themselves, but the little girls and boys play 
much the same games. If they are in the playground with the 
larger children and there is no way to separate them from the 
others, they are constantly getting in the way and being run 
over. The older boys should naturally have a man director 
over them. The girls play different games from the boys, or 
at any rate play them in a different way. The older girls 
do not like to play games when the boys are around, and 
they have the folk dancing, the sewing, raffia, and such activi- 
ties, which the boys do not usually care for. They should 
normally be under a woman director. The little children, 
again, have their own specific games and stories and indus- 
trial work and should have a kindergarten teacher. All of 
these facts indicate that there should in actual practice be at 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 31 

least three different sections and play leaders for the play- 
ground. On the other hand, the arguments on the other side 
are much the same as those against fencing at all. The fencing 
takes up room. Balls go over the fence, and one must go after 
them ; this interrupts the games. The real pressure often 
comes from the older boys and girls who like to get together. 
Of course this desire is normal and proper and should not be 
denied, but playgrounds were not intended for courting, and 
the more cbmpletely the sentimentaHty which it begets can be 
excluded, the better it will be for every one concerned. It is 
also a sad fact that there are loose girls and many loose boys 
coming to all playgrounds. These always gravitate together, 
and may start an evil contagion. It is impossible for the 
director to hear every word or to see every action, and the 
society of such girls and boys will be a menace to the morals 
of other children. It is often true that the directors see 
nothing and hear nothing objectionable, and yet there may 
be much going on that will have a bad influence. It is best 
to prevent the possibility of this by separating the children. 

It must not be inferred from this that I believe that girls 
and boys should never play together. There is no danger from 
the playing together of boys and girls ; it is the loafing together 
that is dangerous. It may be a very good thing for the boys' 
baseball team or volley ball team to play the girls occasionally. 
It is often wise to have exhibitions and the like which will be 
attended by both girls and boys. I do not think any evil 
results are likely to come from such contests, and they are sure 
to lead to greater excellence in play on the part of the girls 
and to be a wholesome stimulus to both. 

What Divisions Should There Be ? — It must not be in- 
ferred from what I have said that I believe the Chicago 



32 Practical Conduct of Play 

division of the playgrounds is satisfactory. If children are 
to be divided on the basis of their play activities, why have 
one playground for children under ten, and others for those 
over ten? Common usage has come everywhere to divide 
childhood into three divisions: the period before entrance 
to the regular school, which includes the kindergarten and 
runs up, perhaps, to six or seven years of age ; the " Big 
Injun Age," as it is called by Joseph Lee, which corresponds in 
general to the elementary school ; and youth or adolescence, 
which begins with puberty. If the playground is divided 
on this basis, there must be five or six divisions : one for the 
little children, who may well be together ; one for boys from 
seven or eight to thirteen ; one for girls of the same age ; 
one for adolescent boys ; one for adolescent girls ; and I 
should be inclined to have a section, also, for parents and 
adults. Such a division, I believe, can be defended on physio- 
logical, sociological, and educational grounds. 

It may not be feasible to divide a playground into six 
parts, but four divisions are quite possible. Probably the most 
practical division in most cases would be a playground for 
children under seven or eight, a playground for older boys, 
a playground for older girls, and a community playground 
where the boys and the girls, the fathers and the mothers, 
might meet together and take part in common games and social 
occasions. 

Are the Division Fences Necessary ? — I am unable to see 
that any considerable advantage is secured by the Chicago 
division fences. As they are picket fences, they do not give 
much seclusion to the girls' playground, or prevent boys or 
men from seeing in. As girls and boys can meet as much as 
they choose in the much more dangerous places which sur- 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 33 

round these special playground divisions, the fences do not 
serve as a moral safeguard. In actual fact, the chief service 
which they perform is that of marking off places where the 
children of different ages and sexes may play by themselves. 
For this purpose expensive picket fences are not necessary, as 
a low hedge of barberry, perhaps, not more than two or three 
feet high, would serve just as well and would be much more 
convenient when balls went out of bounds. 

If the playground is to be a loafing place, full of equipment 
and in charge of caretakers, it is essential that the girls should 
be absolutely separated from the boys, and perhaps that they 
should have entirely separate playgrounds. 

There are five determining factors in the kind and number of 
the playground divisions. The first of these is the number of 
directors who are to be on the playground. There should be 
no more divisions than there are directors, for a division fence 
that has to be passed constantly in order to supervise another 
section is sure to be an impediment to efficiency. A second 
consideration which is rather decisive is the size of the play- 
ground, for in a small playground, even if there are many 
children, the division fences often take up more room than 
can be afforded, and it is better to get along without them. 
A third factor is always the effectiveness of the supervision, — 
the capacity of the supervisors and the hold which they have 
over the children. A fourth is the presence of parents on 
the playground and the extent to which the ground has be- 
come a community gathering place. A fifth consideration is 
the nature of the neighborhood itself, as there is likely to be 
more trouble in some quarters than in others from the meet- 
ing of the sexes. However, whether substantial fences sep- 
arate the playground divisions or not, it is absolutely essen- 



34 Practical Conduct of Play 

tial that there be a separate place for the play of the little 
children, of the older girls, and of the older boys, though the 
dividing lines be merely imaginary. 

It is doubtful whether the play movement in any of our 
cities is well enough organized as yet to make the municipal 
playgrounds satisfactory without separating the girls from the 
boys. But it is quite certain that there are at the present 
time no places where the separation is satisfactorily accom- 
plished. I am inclined to think that without separation there 
may be more danger from vicious adults than from the boys, 
and an undivided playground may be one of the best places 
for a woman policeman. 

Divisions on the School Playground. — On the school play- 
ground, it is usually better not to have the division fences, pro- 
vided the play is supervised. The school ground is not large 
enough to afford the space, and after school and during the 
summer it is often sufficient to have only one play director 
on the ground, if the ground is not divided ; but, if the girls 
and the boys are separated, two directors will be necessary. 
At the school ground there ought to be no difficulty in securing 
the attendance of enough parents in the afternoon and evening 
to avoid any social dangers from the mixing of the boys and 

the girls. 

BEAUTIFYING THE PLAYGROUND 

There are always people living near playgrounds who ob- 
ject to them as ugly and noisy. There is no doubt that an 
unfenced ground, where all the grass has been worn off by abun- 
dant use and where no adequate supervision has been fur- 
nished, will cause all the property in the immediate neighbor- 
hood to depreciate in value. The natural answer to the 
objectors lies in fencing and beautifying the playground and 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 35 

providing adequate supervision. If this is not done, the play 
movement cannot get that enthusiastic support which it 
needs. Even when all these provisions are made, there will 
still be those who object to the playground as they do to the 
school, because they do not like to have children around, and 
because they would rather sit on their front porches in the 
evening and gossip or dream in quiet, even though the children 
languish in the alleys, than to have a playground in their 
immediate neighborhood. But these provisions will answer 
the legitimate objectors and the movement owes as much 
as this to the locality in which the playgrounds are placed. 

The early years of the race were spent in an environment of 
nature. The nervous system became adapted to such an 
environment during the countless ages before history, 
when man was a part of nature rather than its lord. 
All forms of play issue from these earlier forms of activity. 
They derive their pleasure from their association with these 
activities in the distant past, and it may be said, in general, 
that nearly or quite all forms of rest and play consist in a 
return to nature. We all get out of the cities for our vaca- 
tions if we can. For the old activities that the race pursued 
in its infancy, we have ready-made coordinations and an in- 
stinctive interest. We not only do the task with less effort, 
but we are able to command more energy for the task. As 
every one knows, we do not tire so easily in play as in work. 
Nature is a restful element of our original environment that 
ought to come in with our play. Our ideal pictures of play 
are always of children by the brook or in the meadow or 
under a spreading tree, and if there are squirrels, birds, and 
butterflies, these also seem to belong to the picture and to be 
a part of the concept. 



36 Practical Conduct of Play 

Most or at least many of our playgrounds at the present 
time are utterly ugly or nearly so. There are no trees or 
flowers or grass. The ground is muddy in wet weather and 
dusty in dry. Of course there are natural Hmitations to the 
beautifying of a playground. It cannot be turned into an 
ornamental park or a series of flower beds without destroying 
it for play purposes, but it is not at all necessary that play- 
grounds should be ugly. The proper beautifying will both 
remove the objections of the neighbors and make the ground 
more appropriate as a place for play. 

The Fence. — The thing to begin with in beautifying a 
playground is the fence, and it may well be the most important 
element in the landscaping when it is finished. The fence 
serves a double purpose. It shuts off the view of the bare 
ground within, and it may itself be a thing of beauty. 

The playground fence should be hard to climb, it should be 
reasonably durable, and it should add to the appearance of 
the place rather than detract from it. 

In the Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia playgrounds 
the steel picket fence is used. This is about six feet high 
with steel posts set in concrete. It is a pretty expensive fence, 
costing, even in the large quantities purchased in Chicago 
and Philadelphia, from $1.25 to $1.75 a running foot. It an- 
swers all purposes, can be rapidly installed, and lasts for- 
ever. For a municipal playground in a congested section, 
it is probably the most serviceable kind of fence. It may be 
beautified by covering it with flowering vines. 

There are not many playgrounds surrounded by hedge 
fences, but I am inclined to think that an evergreen hedge is 
a very good type of playground fence. It is cheap, it is much 
handsomer than the picket fence, and when well grown it is 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 37 

almost impossible to climb. It serves to shut off the blasts of 
winter and offers at least a border of shade in summer. If it 
is allowed to grow to the height of six feet or more, it gives se- 
clusion to the girls' playground. For such a fence some 
evergreen such as cedar, box, or privet should be chosen. 
Privet will probably be the most satisfactory wherever it will 
grow. It is a handsome green the year round, but it will not 
grow in the more northern parts of the country. In order to 
protect the hedge at first, it will be necessary to erect a wire 
fence beside it, that it may not be trampled upon. This 
should be about five or six inches outside the hedge. The 
young shoots should usually be planted in two rows, not 
more than six inches apart. As the hedge grows, it will 
spread through the wires and soon conceal the fence en- 
tirely. 

The most beautiful and also the cheapest fence that I know 
of is of woven wire made tight at the bottom to prevent balls 
from going through and then covered with vines. There is a 
great variety of vines that may be used, and almost any of them 
will add to the appearance of the ground. The fence of the 
Jamestown Exposition was about eight feet high and covered 
with honeysuckle and clematis. It was a mass of blossoms 
during the most of the season and the fragrance filled the air 
for a block. Honeysuckle and clematis are hardy and will 
be excellent in the southern section of the country, but morning 
glory, moon vine, or kudsu will be better in the northern 
sections. The prettiest fence that I have ever seen, however, 
is the picket fence around Echo Park, Los Angeles. This 
is covered with rambler roses, which are in blossom much of 
the year there. There are many sections of the country where 
the fences might be beautified in this way. 



38 Practical Conduct of Play 

Trees. — Every playground should be surrounded by a 
double row of trees, one row just outside the sidewalk and the 
other just inside the fence. This double row should also be 
carried around all the subdivisions of the playground. It 
is needed for shade as well as for beauty. The trees should 
be selected with both of these ends in view. Probably the 
hard maple meets these requirements in most sections of 
the country better than any other tree, as it has a beautiful 
top and gives a dense shade. It is, however, a slow-growing tree, 
and many years must pass after planting before it will furnish 
adequate shade. Trees are usually planted from twenty-five 
to forty feet apart by landscape architects and foresters, so as 
to give the top full room to mature ; but it is often well to 
plant between these fine slow-growing trees such rapid growers 
as soft maples or cotton woods or gingkoes, which may be cut 
out after the other trees are well grown. The Lombardy 
poplar has certain advantages as a playground tree, because 
it will grow tall, even in the open, and thus casts its shade 
a long way. If Lombardies are used, they should be planted 
not more than eight or ten feet apart. The Lombardy is used 
very effectively all over Utah. It is a rapid-growing tree, but 
is apt to be somewhat scraggly in appearance. In using a 
double row of trees, it may be worth while at times to use a 
smaller and more beautiful tree like the horse chestnut, or 
perhaps the magnoKa in the South, for the inner row. 

The tree that is planted in a playground has difficult condi- 
tions to meet, and good-sized trees should be used whenever 
possible. A large part of them die because they are not really 
planted, but are literally torn up by the roots from some 
neighboring forest or nursery and stuck into a small hole in 
the hard ground. The earth is thrown back and tramped 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 39 

down like the earth on a coffin, and the tree is left to die. 
In planting a tree, a space not less than five feet square should 
be excavated and filled with good soil. The earth should be 
put back carefully about the roots, and the tree should be 
boxed to protect it from injury during its first years. The 
estimate of the cost of planting a tree in the school yards of 
Washington was four dollars. This was not allowing anything 
for the cost of the tree, but paid only for making the excavation, 
filling in good earth, removing the subsoil, and boxing the tree. 

Trees should never be planted promiscuously in a play- 
ground, but they may properly be planted around special 
features, such as the tennis or basket ball or volley ball court, 
if there is ample room. It will be a generation before we can 
get a playground shaded with great elms or oaks or maples, 
where the birds will sing in the branches and the squirrels and 
owls will find their home, but it is necessary for us to make a 
beginning, if our children or grandchildren are to have these 
advantages. 

Shrubbery. — In regard to the general use of shrubbery in 
playgrounds, there is only one thing to say, and that is 
" Don't." Shrubbery has small benefits to confer, and it 
brings dangers that are not to be minimized. The play- 
ground should have no place of concealment where boys and 
girls are likely to come together. In the Chicago grounds 
the shrubbery is banked about the fences, where it adds con- 
siderably to the appearance, but this surely does not justify 
the moral dangers which are involved. 

About the only ways in which shrubbery may be used with 
safety are as low hedges to protect a grass plot or flower bed 
or to maintain a path, and as a narrow border against the 
front or sides of a recreation building. 



40 Practical Conduct of Play 

Vines. — Perhaps enough has been said about vines in 
connection with the fences, but it may be added that vines on a 
trellis will make an excellent cover for a sandbin, much cooler 
and more satisfactory than an awning. They will serve to 
conceal outbuildings and may well be used to cover buildings 
of any sort. 

Grass. — It is difficult to raise grass on a small playground, 
but it is possible to have a border around the edge. This 
adds greatly to the appearance and serves as a place for story 
telling and for rest when weary from hard play. It may be 
necessary to protect this grass by a low wire fence or hedge 
so that the children may not use it as a part of their play field. 
Such a border should be maintained wherever it is possible. 

Flowers. — Flowers and playgrounds do not go well to- 
gether, and any extensive decoration with flower beds is sure 
to be an intrusion and a nuisance. Many of our school play- 
grounds in Washington had flower beds next to the fences. 
Most of these were practically uninjured by the play, and the 
playgrounds were certainly the prettier for having the flowers, 
but the simple fact is that playgrounds were intended to raise 
children and not flowers, and where the teachers value flowers 
above children, as has been done in many school yards, the 
children always suffer. If there is an outside organization 
which will promote the flower side of the program, it may be 
worth while to have flower beds around the edge of the ground, 
but it must be remembered that these flowers are always in a 
precarious position. There was once a row of flower beds 
around the Columbus Avenue Playground of Boston, but these 
have disappeared. If there is a flagpole on the grounds, as 
there should be, it is well worth while to have a mass of banked 
flowers, such as salvia or cannas, or geraniums around the 



The Construction of the Playgrounds 41 

pole, and it may be advisable to have one or two simple beds 
of flowers at the entrance to the ground, on each side of the 
gate, and have them kept by the attendant, but I doubt if 
much more than this is wise as a rule. On the other hand, 
perhaps few of us realize how restful a flower bed may be. 
The lover of beauty basks in the richness of color much as our 
forebears did in the sunshine of the primeval mud flat or sand 
bar. Whenever the mind drops back from conscious thought 
into the realm of sensation, as it does when it dwells on 
objects of beauty or listens to music, all the higher faculties 
of the mind are rested. But the playground is not the place 
for this kind of dreaming, and a flower bed can never be more 
than a decoration there. 



CHAPTER IV 

PLAYGROUNDS ACCORDING TO AGES AND SEXES 

The playground as described in the last chapter is not 
found in fact in any American city, but is a composite built 
up from elements taken from playgrounds and social gather- 
ing places all over the world. It is believed to be superior in 
certain ways to any playgrounds thus far constructed. The 
entire area should be surrounded by a high, strong fence, 
and should have at least four divisions, though the dividing 
lines may be imaginary. So far as possible, however, the 
children's playgrounds should be set off from each other 
by solid hedges, while the community playground may 
be placed in the center and separated from the other play- 
grounds by a low hedge, which will serve as a boundary but 
will not be a real barrier if balls go out of bounds. Thus from 
the community playground, where the parents are supposed 
to come, all the other playgrounds will be in view. All of 
the entrances to the individual playgrounds should be from 
this central space, so that the children can come into it 
for exhibitions and entertainments. This arrangement will 
also lessen the problem of discipline, for it will be much easier 
to keep account of what is going on if the children cannot 
rush in from the outside and rush out again as they choose, 
but must enter and leave their own ground through the 
central space. Moreover, the rowdies who sometimes make 
themselves a nuisance can be more easily excluded under 
this arrangement. 

42 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 43 

THE PLAYGROUND FOR THE LITTLE CHILDREN 

Perhaps a better name for this section would be " the 
Mothers' and Babies' Playground," as they call it in New 
York. At any rate, there should be every effort to get the 
mothers to attend as well as the children, so that it may be a 
family affair as much as possible. There is no playground in 
this country which is ideally adapted to little children and 
their mothers. It would be best to have this section set off 
from the rest of the playground by a hedge fence to give it 
retirement as well as a fringe of green and some shade. It 
should have an abundance of trees and grass, for the little 
children are always sitting down, or lying down, or falling 
down. Various living things are almost as essential to it as 
play equipment, and there should by all means be flowers in 
abundance. 

There should be a house for pigeons, and both bird and 
squirrel houses in the trees, a fountain with goldfish and 
turtles, and perhaps a duck or two, a corner for chickens and 
guinea pigs and prairie dogs ; and a lamb or two and puppies 
should run loose about the playground. All children are fond 
of animals. It is the children who keep up the zoological 
gardens in all of our cities, for it is they and the parents they 
bring with them who are the chief visitors. The first play- 
ground menagerie that I know of was the one which Mr. 
Stover installed in what is now Seward Park, New York 
City. There were rabbits and guinea pigs and doves. There 
was always a group of children around watching them. I do 
not feel sure how far it is safe to trust children to feed animals 
things that will not kill them, but it certainly adds greatly to 
their pleasure if they may feed as well as watch them. In 



44 Practical Conduct of Play 

the zoological gardens of Germany there is food for sale. I 
doubt if the children would do much harm in any case, as 
there is nothing to compel the rabbit to eat the sausage or 
pickles that are thrust through the bars of its cage. 

In the yard of the Emerson School in Gary, Indiana, there 
is a coon house and tree. In the yard of the Froebel School 
there is a large fountain that is to be filled with fish. The 
Francis Parker School of Chicago has a yard of chickens which 
are cared for by the children of the second grade. Many 
kindergartens have rabbits and guinea pigs and goldfish. 
So a menagerie would not be altogether an innovation. 

During the last decade the squirrels have moved into the 
cities and taken possession. They have found apparently 
that the country is too dangerous ; not only is the city safer, 
but the high cost of living is greatly reduced by the peanuts 
that are dispensed on the park bench, and the lunches that 
are thrown away. Most of the playgrounds are now practically 
without trees of any considerable size, but we hope they will 
have them sometime. Children have not been very kind to 
birds and animals in the past, but they are gaining a new love 
through their nature study, and perhaps sometime we can 
call the birds and squirrels to make their home in the play- 
ground trees. What could be more beautiful and expressive 
of the spirit of youth than to have the birds singing in the 
tree tops, while the children and rabbits and squirrels were 
playing happily below ? 

A Day Nursery. — Probably the best place possible for a 
day nursery during the pleasant weather is in some open-air 
playground that is provided with hammock swings, sand, and 
blocks for the little people. Such nurseries have been started 
in the playgrounds of Pittsburgh and probably some other 



Playgrou7ids according to Ages a^id Sexes 45 

cities, but they require a special nurse. The day nursery 
should not be imposed upon a kindergartner or a playground 
director who has the other children as well to look after. 

Milk Stations. — In a considerable number of playgrounds 
of the country, milk stations have been established for the 
dispensing of certified milk which has usually been sold at a 
penny a glass. The playground in a poor section of the city 
is an excellent place for such a station. In most cases the 
milk has been furnished by Nathan Strauss, and without any 
attempt, of course, to make a profit or even to cover expenses. 
If there can be an arrangement whereby the milk and an attend- 
ant to dispense it may be furnished, it is a good thing to have 
such a station on any ground where little children stay for a 
considerable part of the day. 

The Wading Pool. — Wading is a natural sport of children 
which has never needed encouragement, where there was any 
opportunity to indulge in it. The sensations of the feet were 
very valuable to our primitive ancestors in their forest lives, 
whether in keeping paths, or in avoiding noise when stealing 
upon game, or in escaping from a pursuer. Most of our pres- 
ent foot sensations come from corns and chilblains, which 
have no great economic value. Still the old conditions live 
in our nervous systems, and foot sensations have an emotional 
appeal which is hard to understand. I can remember yet 
those days when we went barefooted for the first time each 
spring. We often went out on the sunny side of the house, 
where the grass was warm, before the snow had entirely gone 
from the north side. The first day when we might go bare- 
footed till bedtime was like the Fourth of July, — a day which 
made such vivid impressions that memory still retains them. 
No less vividly stand out the days at the seashore or along 



46 Practical Conduct of Play 

the creek when one could walk about in the warm sand or in 
the mud and water. These sensations seem to mean nothing 
to the intellect. It is hard to understand the sense of well- 
being that accompanies them. It is probably something like 
the feeling that an alligator has, when he is sunning himself 
on a warm sand bar in the river. 

My first experience with a wading pool was during my first 
summer in the New York playgrounds, back in 1898. It was 
in the yard of one of the great public schools. The yard was 
of concrete with a drain in the center and a sand bin at one 
end. There were three yards and two directors with about a 
thousand children to look after. At that time we were furnish- 
ing the children with small wheelbarrows and shovels. Very 
naturally one of the most delightful kinds of busy work for 
the small children was to fill these wheelbarrows with sand and 
dump it down the drain. One day we had a hard rain and the 
drain went on strike, with the result that we soon had nearly a 
foot of water in the yard. The rain continued to fall in tor- 
rents, and the directors tried to keep their charges under 
cover, but it was no small task. The children liked the yard 
flooded much better than dry, took their shoes and stockings 
off in a jiffy, and were out in the water. The directors would 
go around on one side and forbid the children to go out in 
the rain, but throngs came in meanwhile from the other 
sides until they had to give it up as a bad job and let the chil- 
dren have their way about it. It has never been necessary 
since that time to prove to me that a wading pool would be 
popular. 

In the Chicago playgrounds, all of the later wading pools 
are cemented. They are of different sizes, but probably 
average fifty or sixty feet across. The water is often supplied 




Wading Pool, Children's Section, Echo Park Playground, Los Angeles, 

Calif. 




Children's Wading Pool, Armour Square, Chicago. 



Playgrounds according to Ages arid Sexes 47 

by a fountain arrangement in the center, from which point 
also the water drains away when the pool is to be emptied. 
The common practice now is to make a circular pool about 
forty or fifty feet across with the water three or four inches deep 
at the edge and fifteen or sixteen inches in the center. This 
leaves the larger area shallow, which is what is usually desired. 
The two chief costs of the wading pool are the cementing and 
the connection with the sewer, though there may be a charge 
for the water also. A circular pool forty feet across should 
not cost over three hundred dollars and might cost much 
less. 

Where a pool is made with a mud or sand bottom and the 
water is allowed to filter away through the soil or to evaporate, 
practically the only cost is that of the excavation and the ex- 
pense of supplying the water. Such pools are often supplied 
by park superintendents and are as well liked by the children 
as the other pools, if not better liked. 

The water is not changed frequently in most wading pools. 
It is not necessary that it should be changed so frequently as 
in the swimming pools, because mucous membranes are not 
exposed to it. The children are too young to be afHicted 
with venereal diseases. Eye diseases are not catching from 
the feet, and the only diseases from which there seems to be 
any considerable danger are those of the skin. It is doubtful 
if there is much danger even from these, unless the children 
have running sores on their feet and legs. However, dust 
and soot settle on the water, and various kinds of litter get 
into it, so it is well to change the water occasionally and clean 
up the pools. They are scrubbed down every day in Chicago. 

The cement pool is much more attractive to look at, and the 
water can be let out to clean the pool whenever it is desired, 



48 Practical Conduct of Play 

but it is doubtful whether it is ever as well liked by the chil- 
dren, or whether its advantages are really considerable. It is 
always pleasanter to put your bare feet down in the sand or 
the mud than on cement. It is most pleasant of all where you 
can squeeze the mud up between your toes. Since the chief 
value of the wading pool is in rousing old racial memories and 
creating an emotional state, it seems to follow that the nearer 
the wading pool is to a state of nature, such as our amphibian 
ancestors enjoyed, the more valuable it will be in arousing 
the proper emotional state in the child ; so, if the sanitary in- 
spector has nothing to say to the contrary, I shall vote for 
the pool with a bottom of sand or even of a mild variety of 
mud. We must remember of course that there is clean dirt and 
dirty dirt and that there is nothing unsanitary in coming in 
contact with the soil. The wading pool in any case should be 
so constructed that it can be drained off occasionally. 

The children in the wading pools are apt to get their clothes 
more or less wet and to splash each other. Of ttimes the small 
children want to lie down or sit down in it when the water is 
warm. For this reason bathing booths are furnished in some 
places, so that the children can put on old clothes before 
going in. 

On the whole, the modern wading pool is scarcely the equal, 
for pleasure or for profit, of the old-time mud puddle. Country 
children do not need wading pools, but for the benighted city 
youngsters, who are denied so many of the wholesome sources 
of recreation that the country affords, they are well worth 
while. 

The Sand Bin. — Probably there should be a sand bin in 
every playground, for this furnishes one of the most univer- 
sal forms of play, loved by all children ahke. Still it is 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 49 

not a communal type of play, such as the playground is 
supposed to represent. The child does not much care for 
companions when he is playing in the sand, — certainly not 
for many companions. Children will sometimes combine in 
building a sand heap, but most of the things they mold 
they do alone, and a single child is likely to be as contented 
as though he had a dozen others with him. As the children 
grow older and use the sand more as a means of expression 
in drawing and molding definite objects, a number of chil- 
dren may work in cooperation, but the small children do this 
very little. The sand bin belongs properly in the back yard 
where the children can play by themselves. There are various 
reasons for this which will be taken up later. Nevertheless, 
it is not being furnished in the back yard, in most cases, and 
the playground must furnish it if the children are to have 
it now. 

There is no one in charge of the sand gardens of Germany, 
but they are always surrounded by benches, and, on almost 
any afternoon, one may see there a half a dozen nurse girls 
or mothers, sewing or reading or knitting, while the children 
are digging in the sand. Parents should always be lured to 
the playground with the little children if it is possible, and 
there should be benches where they can sit. It must be said 
that this device has not been altogether successful in Chicago, 
for the great concrete benches which surround the sand bins 
are comparatively little used. But each of these would prob- 
ably hold from a hundred to two hundred mothers, — many 
more than can be expected to come. But benches for eight 
or ten mothers in a congested section are well worth while. 

Appeal of the Sand. — It is difficult to understand the ap- 
peal which sand has for children, but there is no doubt about 



50 Practical Conduct of Play 

the fact. The sand is probably a greater attraction to them 
at the seashore than is the bathing, in most cases, and there 
are a great many who positively disHke the water. Wherever 
a house is being built in the city, and a heap of sand is de- 
posited, there will the children be found, digging away indus- 
triously usually quite unconscious of the passer-by. As Joseph 
Lee says: "Sand seems to have been made for the human 
hand. It is so plastic and obedient to the will of the planner. 
It furnishes excellent opportunities for drawing and molding, 
yet the child's love for the sand is undoubtedly older than any 
intellectual interest. Its appeal is to the emotions and to 
nerve cells associated with a very distant racial history, 
so far back that their intellectual content is lost and only their 
emotional content remains. Doubtless the brain is always 
less emotional and has that much less energy at its command, 
if the child has not roused these particular cells to action 
through his sand activities. The sand appeal may even hark 
back to the amphibious days of the saurians, when the first 
progenitors of man crawled out of the sea to bask on the 
beaches of a pristine world. However that may be, or from 
whatever source, the love of the sand is there, and nearly or 
quite universal among children." 

Nature furnishes the sand at the shore. There is a decided 
pleasure which comes from the contrast of the cold waters 
and the warm sand. The sea keeps its beach constantly 
sterile and disinfected. The ideal place to dig in the sand 
is at the water side. It is difficult to meet this requirement 
in the city playground, but not at all impossible. Some of the 
swimming pools of the South Park System have a sand beach 
around them made of several carloads of imported sand. 
Nearly all of the wading pools in Chicago are near immense 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 51 

sand bins. It would have been quite as easy to make the 
sand courts the real beaches of the wading pools, but doubt- 
less in that case the sand would constantly be getting into 
the pool. 

Shade. — In the great majority of playgrounds, however, 
there are neither wading pools nor swimming pools, and the 
sand bin cannot be so located. It is almost absolutely essential 
that the sand bin should have both shade and the sun, because, 
if there is no shade, the sand gets so hot and dry that the chil- 
dren do not care to play in it, and, if there is no sun, it soon 
becomes unsanitary. In all of the first school playgrounds in 
New York the sand bins were installed in the basements of 
the schools. It was a delight to go in at first and see two or 
even three hundred cliildren digging away there. They were 
usually quite unconscious of observation and utterly absorbed 
in their play, but after two weeks had gone by and the children 
had come in from the streets with their feet covered with the 
gutter slime, which is more than 95 per cent horse manure, and 
they had dropped in the bin their bread crusts and melon rinds, 
the sand bin was not so delightful. One could smell it as soon 
as he came inside the playground. In the municipal play- 
grounds of New York, frame pavilions with permanent roofs 
were erected. These are better than the basements, be- 
cause the sand does at least come in contact with the outdoor 
air. They are nevertheless very unsatisfactory, as they do 
not sufficiently expose the sand to the sun and the rain. In 
Chicago and in many other places they stretch a tarpaulin 
of some kind over the sand bin. This gives a certain amount 
of shade, though it is never very cool shade, and the tarpaulin 
can be rolled up in cool and rainy weather, so that the sand 
may have the benefit of the sun and the rain. However, a 



52 Practical Conduct of Play 

tarpaulin is rather costly. The children are apt to climb 
on it and tear it, and it is apt to be torn by the wind 
unless it is very securely fastened. In some cases the sand 
bin can be put on the north side of a school or other building 
in such a way as to furnish the needed shade and give the 
sand the sunshine mornings and evenings, but on the whole 
the most satisfactory placing of a sand bin is under or around 
a tree. The sand will there get the sun in the morning and 
evening and be protected during the middle of the day when 
it is hot. The shade of a tree is much cooler than the shade 
of canvas, and the tree does not exclude the rain. A second 
good cover for a sand bin is an arbor with a vine of some sort 
over it. This has the great advantage that the arbor or 
framework can be cheaply erected, and the vine will grow in 
a few months if the right one is selected, and it can be pro- 
tected until it gets a start. Kudsu is probably the most 
rapidly growing vine that is available, though Virginia 
creeper also grows very rapidly, and is hardy nearly every- 
where. It looks so much like poison ivy that the children 
will refrain from handling or breaking it. 

The Bin. — Of course the size of the sand bin should be 
determined by the number of children who are likely to use it. 
About twelve feet by twenty will be right for most play- 
grounds. This bin may be made either of cement or of planks. 
If it is made of cement and has a cement bottom, there should 
be some outlet so it will not fill up with water after rains. It 
is better, however, for the sand bin not to have a bottom if 
the ground underneath is hard and will not mix in too much, 
because this keeps the sand in contact with the moisture 
below. For the same reason it is better to excavate the earth 
and put the sand in nearly level with the surrounding surface, 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 53 

as the sand will not dry out so fast as it will if the bin is on the 
top of the ground. The sides may be made of brick or planks or 
cement. If the bin is made on top of the ground, the cement 
bin has no great advantage over the one made of ordinary 
planks about twelve inches in height. There should be a 
plank or board running around the top, to mold the sand on 
and to serve as a seat. The sand bin should be painted about 
the color of the surrounding surface, green for grass, brown for 
earth. Its cost is trifling. If the bin be installed along with 
many other things that are of cement, harmony will require 
that the bin also shall be of cement. 

The Sand. — In cities that have easy access to the sea or lake 
shore, it should always be the practice to secure the pure white 
sand that is found there. This sand is very fine, and pleasant 
to mold, and it does not soil the clothing. There is similar sand 
in many river beds and in some sand banks, but almost any 
plastering sand will do. 

Keeping the Sand Clean, — This is a considerable prob- 
lem, — so much of a problem that I never feel entirely sure 
that the sand bin should not be purely a family affair in the 
back yard. The sources of defilement are many, a few of 
which are as follows. In many quarters the wind bears 
large quantities of dust which settles down on everything. 
It is soon blown off from most things, but it is held by the 
sand. This dust in the city is largely horse manure, though, 
of course, it is the same that we are breathing on the street, 
and that settles upon the upholstery in the parlor. Even 
if it is only pulverized clay, it will make mud when it is rained 
upon. There are always cats that find the sand bin the 
most convenient toilet in the neighborhood. In many 
quarters the sand is sure to get full of fleas. If the playground 



54 Practical Conduct of Play 

is unfenced, the sand bin is likely, in certain quarters, to be a 
place for carousal at night. After the children have gone home 
young rowdies come in to drink beer and have lunches, throw- 
ing the litter in the sand. But the greatest source of de- 
filement is the children themselves. They come barefooted 
with all sorts of filth on their feet. They bring in bits of 
luncheon and drop them in the sand. The little babies fre- 
quently urinate there. It is impossible to prevent this de- 
filement. The only thing that can be done is to change the 
sand frequently, and it should be gone over with a rake every 
day. 

Changing the Sand. — In Germany they change the sand 
about once a week, and many of the sand bins are mounted 
on low tables, so that the children stand up around them. 
This certainly must be a great help in keeping the sand 
clean and fit to use. In the majority of the playgrounds of 
this country, the sand is not changed at all. In others it is 
changed only once a season. The sand usually drifts out of 
the sand bin on to the playground more or less, and has to be 
replenished about once a season unless the bin is very large 
and deep. This old sand can generally be used to advantage 
in filling in the jumping pit and the worn places under the 
apparatus, so there is no considerable loss in replacing it. 
In a great many playgrounds the sand that works out from 
the bin greatly improves the surface of the surrounding 
playground. 

Utensils for Sand Play. — As to supplying utensils for 
playing in the sand, there is a difference of usage. Some play- 
grounds furnish the pails and iron spoons or shovels, and some 
do not. The child at the seashore is nearly always armed 
with a bucket and shovel. The children mold the sand in 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 55 

the pail for many initial attempts at building. The only 
trouble with furnishing this equipment is that it is hard to keep 
track of where the director has many other duties, and the 
little children have very little conception of property rights. 
Consequently, they are very likely to walk off with the im- 
plements furnished. The cost of these things is trifling, and 
they can easily be replaced, but it is not well to teach the 
children to steal. Perhaps the children are too young to be 
injured in this way, however, and if the fact that these things 
are not to be taken away is impressed upon the older children, 
they will largely prevent the younger ones from carrying them 
home. In some of the European sand gardens, a quantity 
of round pebbles are furnished, with which the children out- 
Une their drawings. In some places they furnish clam shells 
instead of shovels, so there is not so much temptation. Of 
course the utensils need to be collected and put away every 
night in any case. This means some trouble. Where there 
is a section for the little children, with a kindergartner in 
charge, there should be no trouble about the children's steal- 
ing the equipment, and the care of it should not be burden- 
some. In any ground it might be well to make the experi- 
ment, impressing upon the children at the beginning that 
the shovels and pails are not to be taken home. 

Sprinkling the Sand. — Unless there are frequent rains, the 
sand that is in the sun a part of the time each day will soon 
get so dry that the children cannot do anything with it. 
Some arrangement should be made, so that it can be wet down 
each evening or so by the janitor after the children leave for 
the night. 

Activities of the Sand Bin. — Children of different ages 
use the sand for different purposes. The little children love 



56 Practical Conduct of Play 

to dig and pile up the sand merely for the sake of doing it. 
They find pleasure in the feeling of the sand on their hands. 
They like to see it grow into different forms and feel themselves 
the cause of the change. As they grow older, the sand play 
takes on more and more of the artistic and expressive nature. 
Any one who has been at Atlantic City must have found the 
activities of the sand artists along the Boardwalk one of the most 
interesting sights of that great resort. They mold wonderful 
angels and horses and knights and castles, and not a few nickels 
and dimes are thrown to the artists every day by the appre- 
ciative onlookers. Sand is excellent material to draw in. 
In the Century Magazine, in 1889, G. Stanley Hall told the 
Story of a Sand Pile in a rural village of Massachusetts. The 
boys who were the artists in this case were about twelve years 
of age, and came to the village each summer for their summer 
vacation. They made in the sand a complete model of the 
village with its streets, schools, public buildings, and other 
points of interest. This is a form of expression that is quite 
as educative as the sand and papier-mache maps that are made 
in the schools. The sand bin is very often used for the story 
period, and the children are invited to illustrate the story in 
the sand bin afterwards. 

The Ages of the Children. — Children will use a sand bin 
with pleasure from the time they are one year old until they 
are twelve or thirteen, but the bin is always placed in the yard 
of the little children, and is used primarily by them. The 
sand gardens of Boston were the first supervised playgrounds 
in this country, and the sand bin has been called the " Mother 
of the Playground." 

On the whole, the sand bin is doubtless much better adapted 
to the back yard than it is to the playground. It is difficult 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 57 

to keep a public sand bin sanitary, and for the artistic and 
expressive uses of the sand there is little opportunity on 
account of the great number of children who make use of it. 

Swings. — Swings will not be discussed in this chapter, 
because they are taken up in detail in the chapter which 
follows, but there should be the hammock swings for the 
babies, the chair swings for the three-year-olds, the low board 
swings for the children of six and seven, and garden or lawn 
swings where they can have parties, take excursions, and other- 
wise '' make believe." 

Building Blocks. — One of the most popular indoor activi- 
ties of little children everywhere is the use of blocks. The 
blocks which are furnished are not usually well adapted to 
the child's purposes, as they are much too small, and do not 
enable him to erect easily different kinds of structures. The 
blocks should be about the size of ordinary bricks, with flat 
boards and longer pieces interspersed. If these are stored in 
some box and there is a platform for building, the occupation 
is sure to be popular. Although keeping the blocks in order, 
and preventing their being scattered about the playground, 
is likely to cause trouble, it is probably worth the effort if 
the Kttle children have a section to themselves with a kinder- 
gartner or an attendant in charge. 

Mud Pies. — I once saw a playground in Berlin where a 
large section seemed to be devoted to the making of mud 
pies ; at any rate, that was all the children were doing. I 
doubt somewhat whether the parents would approve of a 
playground of this kind, but I suspect it would be quite as 
popular with the children as anything that could be offered. 

Hills for Coasting. — Another very interesting development 
in some of the playgrounds for little children in Germany is an 



58 Practical Conduct of Play 

artificial hill, perhaps eight or ten feet high, which is well 
rounded and which serves as a sort of toboggan sHde. The 
children coast down it in their express wagons in the summer, 
and doubtless ride down on sleds during the winter. The hill 
is so low that there is no danger to the children, and it is a 
source of endless delight. Near by was a small building where 
express wagons could be stored. 

A Balancing Mast. — As every one knows who has ever 
observed children at all, little children are always delighted 
to walk on the edge of a wall or bank or fence or even on 
the railroad rail. This is a step in the process of gaining 
control and equilibrium which is a very valuable one in motor 
training. Most of the playgrounds of Germany have a balanc- 
ing mast, which is a beam perhaps 4 by 4 or 4 by 6, supported 
about eight or ten inches from the ground. It is a good thing 
to have two or three of these, some broader and some nar- 
rower, for the bigger and smaller children. They are always 
popular. 

A Framework to Climb On. — From the time the child is 
a year and a half old till he is eight or nine, there are few things 
that are more interesting than climbing. Children love to 
climb up the porch, into trees, up ladders, over anything that 
gives them an opportunity to hold on by their hands and raise 
themselves to a higher position. Some kind of low framework 
that the children could climb over, passing from one position 
to another by hanging on, perhaps, by their hands, would be 
one of the most popular things that could be put into the play- 
ground for small children. If there were underneath an 
abundance of soft sand, there would be no great danger of 
their being injured, and the development of courage would 
be worth the risk involved. Joseph Lee speaks of his 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 59 

children playing tag over a framework of similar nature, and 
observation of our children convinces me of the popularity 
of such a piece of apparatus. 

The Rings, Trapezium, and Horizontal Ladder. — This is 
also the place for a good deal of apparatus which is not or- 
dinarily put in the kindergarten section, but which belongs 
there more than anywhere else. The little child is like a 
monkey, as we all know. He loves to hang by his hands, 
and almost any apparatus which furnishes this opportunity 
will be appreciated. The parallel rings, the trapezium, and 
the horizontal ladder will be more used by the children in 
the kindergarten than by the older children. When the 
horizontal ladders were first placed in the school playgrounds in 
New York City and steps were made so that the little children 
could get up to them, there was an almost continuous pro- 
cession of children five or six years old walking across these 
ladders on their hands. I can remember, too, as a child on 
a Michigan farm, how at a very early age we used to walk 
the great beams of the barn, sometimes thirty or forty feet 
from the floor, holding on by our fingers. 

An Out-door Kindergarten. — The original kindergartens 
of Froebel were out of doors. It was his intention that they 
always should be there. Every one realizes that it is best 
for the little children to be in the house as little as possible, 
and that, so far as conditions permit, they should be in the 
open air in their play. Whenever a playground of the type 
suggested can be provided, it would be best that all the kinder- 
garten work of the school should be done there . It would be 
probably necessary that there should be a pavilion with some 
shelter, but it would be no great loss, perhaps, if some of the 
gifts and industrial work were slighted for the more vigorous 



6o Practical Conduct of Play 

games of the playground. This might mean that the kinder- 
garten would have to take its vacation during the winter and 
be in operation from April or May till November or December, 
but this would not be any great matter. There should be a 
kindergartner, in any case, in charge of this playground for 
the little children. 

It was not Froebel's intention that there should be a separate 
class of teachers to have charge of the play of the little children, 
but that the mothers should do it. But, as every one knows, 
the mothers, even those with kindergarten training, largely 
fail to play with their children. A playground of this type 
would furnish an opportunity for the instruction and en- 
couragement of the mothers in this play. There should be 
shade, and abundant benches, and places for baby carriages, 
and any other inducements that might be thought of. During 
the first years in New York City, there were kindergartens on 
all the recreation piers, and the mothers used to gather around 
by dozens, and sometimes by hundreds, to watch the play. 
Not infrequently a mother was heard to say, " I don't see how 
she makes him mind without hitting him." Surely this 
object lesson in the guidance of children must have had a 
beneficial influence on the home discipline and the personal 
relationships between the mothers and their children. 

THE PLAYGROUND FOR THE OLDER GIRLS 

It is best that the playground for the older girls be shut off 
from the street and also from the boys' playground by a high, 
solid hedge, though it is very desirable that it should be 
separated from the central space only by a low hedge, so that 
it may be entirely open to observation from within. Es- 
pecially the section where the swings and teeter ladders are 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 6i 

located should be as completely secluded from direct observa- 
tion from the street as possible. 

This playground should provide a place for ring games 
for the younger girls and for general games such as captain 
ball, pullaway, dodge ball, and the like, and it should have 
definitely located grounds for volley ball, indoor baseball, 
basket ball, tennis, and croquet. At one side of the ground 
there should be a running track not more than loo yards in 
length and a place for the broad and the high jump. This 
ground should contain, also, a considerable number of 
swings not more than twelve or fourteen feet high, seesaws, 
giant strides, and a slide. 

Either in the field house or the school building or, if there is 
no such building, in a special pavilion, there should be a place 
on this ground for dancing and for industrial work. 

It is in every way desirable that there also be dishes and 
some opportunity for serving very simple spreads, which should 
be available both for the boys and the girls. The girls love 
to have tea parties, and an occasional party with the boys is a 
great promoter of friendship. There are few things that would 
do more to promote courtesy towards visiting teams than the 
custom of giving them some very simple entertainment such 
as ice cream or lemonade after the game is over. In most 
of the field houses of Chicago there is provision for such hos- 
pitality. In school playgrounds, it ought to be possible to 
make such arrangements, wherever there is a department of 
domestic economy. 

If the dress of girls is to be reformed, probably the best 
place to set the standards is on the playgrounds themselves, 
and nothing would be more salutary than some more or less 
understood rule as to what this dress should be. Certainly 



62 Practical Conduct of Play 

girls who are to take active exercise should not wear corsets 
or high-heeled shoes or hobble skirts or white underwear, but 
tennis shoes and a middy blouse with bloomers under a short 
skirt, or some similar comfortable attire, should be standard- 
ized for playground use so far as possible. 

THE PLAYGROUND FOR THE OLDER BOYS 

This division may well contain very nearly the same things 
as the playground for the girls, but it should be somewhat 
larger, as the games of boys require more space than those of 
girls, and the attendance of the boys is also likely to be better. 
The space devoted to athletics should be more ample, to pro- 
vide for longer races and for hurdling. 

Just as the girls should be provided with some facilities for 
cooking, sewing, and similar activities, so there ought to be 
some sort of shop available in connection with the playground 
where tools may be kept and repairs made, and where the 
children may go to make kites or other things which they wish 
to use. A school playground which is already provided with 
a manual training room has in this way an advantage over the 
municipal playground. 

THE COMMUNITY PLAYGROUND 

- There are too many forces at the present time that tend 
to disrupt the home and the family. If the activities of 
the children are passing from the home and the yard to the 
playground, then the parents ought to go with them, for the 
sake of the home and for the sake of the wholesomeness of the 
play. Adults need recreation and exercise as well as children, 
and so far as possible the playground ought to be a community 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 63 

melting pot. During a large part of the year such a common 
meeting ground is almost the only possible condition of a real 
community life, and of wholesome relationships between 
parents and children and classes in the community. 

This meeting ground of the community should be in the 
central part of the playground itself, so that it shall have all 
the other separate grounds under observation. It should 
be also the place for all the exhibitions and entertainments 
given by the children. It should contain the general baseball 
diamond and the grand stand for the observation of all 
special contests and exhibitions in folk dancing and the like. 

If possible, there should also be facilities for all of those 
games which are adapted to adults, such as volley ball, indoor 
baseball, tennis, croquet, long ball, and quoits. This should 
be, too, the common meeting ground for the boys and the 
girls where they may play all of these games together if they 
wish, for, as has been said, it is not their playing together 
but their loafing together which is dangerous. Here, also, 
there should be a pavilion for general dances, and there should 
be a stand for band concerts which might serve also as a sort 
of grand stand for general observation of the playground at 
other times. Moving pictures might be shown in the evening, 
and concerts given either by the city bands or by Victrolas or 
the new Edison disc phonographs. In front of the grand 
stand, it should be possible to set tables for the serving of ice 
cream and coffee and other light refreshments. 

These phases which I have mentioned will not really be so 
great an innovation on the playground as they might seem 
at first. A number of the municipal grounds in New York have 
a large rostrum or elevated pavilion for the observation of the 
playground, and most of our amusement parks serve refresh- 



64 Practical Conduct of Play 

ments in front of the band stand. In many ways the German 
concert garden is the most delightful community playground in 
the world. There is excellent music, there is shade, and good 
refreshments are sold at reasonable rates. There is a delight- 
ful social atmosphere throughout it all, and at the edges are 
abundant playgrounds for the children. The experience of 
Superintendent Parker in Hartford in making the park self- 
supporting would seem to indicate that these new features 
might be furnished at a cheap rate and without any additional 
expense whatever to the city, provided it was done by the 
Recreation Department itself rather than through concessions. 
It is possible to furnish moving pictures at little cost in a place 
where no hall need be hired. 

Every effort should be made to make the playground a 
community affair in which all take an interest, and which 
will become the common center of the social life. To this 
end it would be wise for the mothers' club, or the civic 
club, or the social center association, or whatever organ- 
ization there may be which represents the neighborhood, 
to have a certain supervision over the playground social life 
and seek to have some of its members on duty there at least 
during the late afternoons and evenings. To this end, it 
would be wise for the mothers' club, perhaps, to hold after- 
noon teas at times in the band stand or some other available 
place, and there should be exhibits of industrial work, and baby 
shows, and other things which would call the parents in as 
judges or participants and which would make them feel that 
the playground was for them as well as the children, and that 
they were genuinely interested in its success. 

This community playground for adults and children would 
solve several of the toughest problems of the playground. 



Playgrounds according to Ages and Sexes 65 

It would be a place where the family might meet together and 
would thus tend to unite rather than separate its members. 
The supervision of the mothers would be a most salutary means 
of preventing objectionable conduct between the boys and 
girls, and of checking bad language, smoking, and other actions 
which sometimes cause criticism of our playgrounds. There 
are probably no parents who would object to their children's 
attending a playground where they themselves go and where 
they can observe constantly what is going on. If the parents 
came often to the playgrounds, they would have a better 
understanding of what the children are doing and would be 
more willing to cooperate in all of the enterprises which the 
director tries to carry through. The discipline would be 
made much easier by this cooperation of the parents. Al- 
though American parents are always ready to sacrifice 
themselves and to spend their money lavishly on their children, 
they are much more ready to spend money on themselves. 
There is probably not a small city in the country whose people 
do not spend more on a golf club for a hundred adults than 
they do for the play of the four or five thousand children of 
the city, and the playground that provides for the recrea- 
tion of the adults as well as the children is sure to have much 
more ample financial support than one which is for the chil- 
dren alone. 



CHAPTER V 

THE PLAY EQUIPMENT 

The chief value of play, probably, is that it represents 
the old racial activities through which our progenitors climbed 
to civilization and modern industries. In spirit and motive 
it represents periods so distant and extended that the time of 
recorded history sinks into insignificance. It uses nervous 
coordinations that are hereditary and rouses those deeper 
layers of energy that have been developed and stored up 
through the whole life history of the race. It is not so much 
an activity as a spirit which represents an earlier time. It is 
nature's method whereby the child may live through the 
childhood of the race and develop the motor coordinations 
and skill, the emotions, the judgment, and the will in the 
same way that the racQ has done. Its education is not for 
information; but, as a training of the practical, emotional, 
and social life of a boy or girl, it is much more effective than 
arithmetic or geography. The same things cannot be said of 
play with apparatus. In the larger sense this is not play at 
all. In its newer forms it has no direct associations with the 
past. 

In general, play equipment is probably most valuable for 
little children, and its value decreases rather rapidly with 
advancing years until for young people of high school age 
such equipment as swings, giant strides, merry-go-rounds, and 
the like have little value. 

66 



The Play Equipment 67 

THE COMMON PIECES OF EQUIPMENT 

The Swing. — The swing is usually the central feature of 
the equipment for small children. It is the piece of apparatus 
which is apt to attract the most attention. In the minds of 
many people, a city playground means a row of swings. Yet 
the swing is one of the most expensive, dangerous, and trouble- 
some pieces of apparatus. It causes nearly all the criticism 
that is made of playgrounds, is responsible for most of the 
accidents, and yields in return a mild emotional stimulus of 
no apparent value, and a very small amount of physical exer- 
cise. What has the swing to say for itself ? 

Why Bo We Like to Swing? — Joseph Lee says the pleasure 
of swinging is a reminiscence of our tree top home. Very 
likely it is. All things that are spontaneously and universally 
pleasurable must have secured this association with pleasure 
in periods far back in history. Certainly monkeys all like to 
swing, and it is said to be through their skill in leaping from 
swaying branch to swaying branch or in swinging from vines 
or each other's tails that they bridge the gap from tree to 
tree and are able to traverse the highways of the forest. 
Children like about as well to swing from a single hanging rope 
as on a regular swing with a seat, as all gymnasium experience 
must testify. I have no knowledge of the age of our present 
swing with two ropes and a board, but it seems to belong to 
the race. Pretty much everywhere it is to be found suspended 
from the limb of some convenient tree, and it seems to be 
the natural corollary of childhood everywhere. The sensations 
of swinging are of almost effortless motion, of a mild and 
gentle breeze, of falHng without danger. These sensations, 
however, can scarcely explain the universal pleasure in the 



6S Practical Conduct of Play 

swing. Lee says that " swinging is like foreign travel/' but 
he fails to explain the resemblance. He thinks his children 
do not need to swing, because of their varied experiences. I 
suspect, however, that there is a specific stimulation of the 
brain cells that only the swing can give, and that the child 
who has not had this emotional awakening may be the poorer 
intellectually all the rest of his life. 

The Lawn Swing. — The lawn swing is scarcely a swing in 
its effect on the mind. Psychologically I doubt if it is a swing 
at all. It produces very different sensations. The lawn, 
garden, or skup swing in its ordinary form will not stand the 
strain of the general playground. Two were placed in each 
playground the first year in New York City, but they were 
nearly all broken during the first week, because it was hard 
to prevent six or eight children from getting into each of them 
at the same time. There is a large swing made by W. Tothill 
of Chicago out of heavy timbers, which is used in the Chicago 
playgrounds. This is a serviceable playground swing, but 
it is expensive as compared with the other swings. Its chief 
value is as a seat when you are tired, a seat also that creates 
its own breeze. This is well adapted to playground use, and 
it is a good thing to have a few of them at the side of 
the strenuous play fields, so that they may take the place of 
benches. 

The lawn swing, even as usually made, I believe to be well 
worth while in the kindergarten section. I have been much 
interested during the last year in observing half a dozen 
children, the oldest of whom is ^ve and the youngest two, in 
their play in a garden swing. I had always regarded this 
swing as of comparatively little value, but this experience has 
entirely changed my views in regard to it. There are at least 



The Play Equipment 69 

a dozen different ways in which the children are able to oper- 
ate this swing, and nearly all of them are excellent physical 
exercise. They have gained considerable courage in getting 
on and off while it was in motion, and I have never known a 
child to be much hurt. They use the rungs at the top as 
horizontal bars for all sorts of gymnastic stunts and con- 
stantly climb over the framework, so that the paint has been 
nearly all worn off from the upper part of the frame. One of 
their commonest games is to take journeys to various places 
of which they have heard. They all get in. One child is 
conductor, another engineer, and the swing is started and run 
at full speed for a considerable length of time, while the con- 
ductor goes about taking up the tickets, announcing Chicago, 
St. Louis, and other cities, as he goes along. After every- 
body's ticket has been collected, the engineer stops the train, 
and they all get out and collect more tickets from some near-by 
tree, when the train is again started with a different conductor 
and engineer, and is run to some other city. This game has 
been almost endlessly repeated and varied and the interest 
has held. In this way they have all learned the names of all 
the cities that any of the children knew, and they have also 
learned much about the running of a train. I am not sure 
that such a use for a garden swing would be developed in a 
playground, and I fear most directors would not allow the 
children to climb over the top of the framework, but I believe 
it has been well worth while and that more has been got out 
of it than out of any other single piece of apparatus that I 
have ever seen used by very young children. 

The Hammock and Chair Swings. — The hammock itself 
is a form of swing that comes the nearest, perhaps, to the 
primeval. The orang-outang builds his own hammock in 



70 Practical Conduct of Play 

the tree top, and weaves the couch in which to die when shot. 
The hammock is found only in the infant department of the 
playgrounds, where baby hammocks are sometimes furnished 
for the little children. A number of these were installed 
in Seward Park in the first years, but it was soon discovered 
that the mothers would come over, put their babies in the 
hammocks, and go off and leave them for an hour or more 
at a time, with the result that the directors had a day nursery 
on their hands. 

Chair swings are much liked by children from three to six 
years of age. In any place where they are provided, they will 
generally be found filled, but the older children are apt to 
crowd into them and break them, or they are broken in putting 
them up and taking them down. These swings are good for 
the little children, but they require considerable care, as the 
children usually have to be put in and taken out. When a 
child gets into one of these comfortable chairs also, he likes to 
stay, and there are apt to be complaints from other children 
who wish to use them. 

The Wooden Framework. — In the early days nearly all of 
the equipment was of wood. The present practice is to use 
steel almost altogether. This is in accordance with the general 
trend of development in other Hues. A swing framework, 
when there are two big boys or girls in each swing, with each 
couple trying to swing as high as they can, is subject to great 
strain, and steel is none too strong. It is possible to make the 
wooden framework as strong in the beginning as it needs to be, 
but it soon rots away both on the top where the rain soaks 
into the timber and also just at the surface of the ground 
or a little below. Consequently, it may be only a year or two 
before the timbers are unsafe, though this may not appear at 



The Play Equipment 71 

all at the surface. However, if the swing frame is properly 
braced, it will not collapse, even though the uprights are 
rotted off ; at least, it will not do so at once and without warn- 
ing. This rotting of the part in the ground can be largely 
prevented by setting the post in concrete about three and a 
half feet, which should also come at least half a foot above the 
surface of the ground. If this concrete is mixed with a small 
amount of alum or oil,^ it will keep the water out and give 
stability to the framework at the same time. The posts may 
also be protected by creosoting the lower end of them or by 
dipping them in hot coal tar. However, these two methods 
do not give the rigidity to the frame which is secured by 
concrete. Timbers, four by six, of Georgia pine are the ones 
usually used. The crossbeam at the top is another weak spot 
in the wooden frame. If it is flat, the water soaks into it and 
rots it, especially at the places where the bolts go through. 
Sometimes this is prevented to a considerable extent by round- 
ing off the top beam or by covering it with tin. 

Perhaps the chief objection to the wooden framework, how- 
ever, is that it is big and awkward. It is not nearly so grace- 
ful and sightly as the steel frame. It should always be kept 
painted, of course, if used, but in the long run it will not be 
found to be much cheaper than the steel frame, and the steel 

1 The following rule for making concrete waterproof is given by the Scientific 
American. This might be useful in the construction of the swimming pool as 
well as in setting the wooden apparatus. 

The United States Army Engineers have long used the following mixture in 
waterproofing cement : One part cement, two parts sand, three quarters pound 
of dry powdered alum to each cubic foot of sand. Mix dry and add water in 
which has been dissolved three quarters pound of soap to each gallon. This 
is nearly as strong as ordinary cement, and is quite impervious to water besides 
preventing efflorescence. For a wash, a mixture of one pound of lye and two 
pounds alum in two gallons of water is often used. 



72 Practical Conduct of Play 

is to be recommended unless the whole arrangement is tem- 
porary. 

The Steel Framework. — There is nothing difficult to under- 
stand about the steel framework. Ordinary gas pipe will serve 
perfectly well, and it can be screwed together by almost any 
one. Three-inch medium pipe with three and a half inch 
horizontals should be used, or two-inch uprights and two and 
one half inch horizontals, if the extra heavy pipe is used. All 
pipe dimensions refer to interior measurements. This is 
amply strong for the low swings, if they are well braced, but 
it would be well to use a half inch larger pipe for the high 
swings for big children. (Spalding sizes.) 

There is a general feeling that galvanized pipe should always 
be used, but there is no great choice between well-painted 
black pipe and the galvanized. The iron workers who build 
bridges, towers, and such structures, with the exception of 
windmill and electric light towers, use the black iron, which is 
first painted red to protect it from rust and afterwards black. 

Galvanized pipe is pretty sure to rust where there is any wear. 
In the ordinary gas pipe that is screwed together, the thread 
of the pipe cuts it about half in two and consequently reduces 
its strength by that much at the last thread. Spalding avoids 
this by using an unthreaded pipe and fastening the fitting 
with set screws. Medart uses an unthreaded pipe and fastens 
the fitting and the horizontal together with bolts. This re- 
quires two holes through the pipe and fitting and must weaken 
it considerably, but probably not so much as the thread. The 
Spalding set screws tend to work out, and none of these ar- 
rangements are ideal. 

The Height of the Swing Frame. — Children like the tall 
swing. Of course the taller the swing, the heavier the frame- 



The Play Equipment 73 

work will have to be and the better it will need to be braced. 
This is true both because greater leverage and momentum 
are acquired by the high swing and because the tall swing will 
always attract the large children, while the low swing is Hkely 
to be left to the Httle children. The high swing is considerably 
more expensive also. My own feehng is for the low swing, in 
the main, because it does not take so much room, is not so dan- 
gerous, does not cost so much money, and is not to taken from 
the little children who are its rightful possessors by the big 
children who ought to be doing something else. The swings 
for the Httle children in most cases ought not to be more than 
eight or ten feet high. It is well to put up a bent of twelve 
to eighteen swings in a section, as this is cheaper, and they are 
more easily controlled than where they are put up in separate 
sections. The swings for the little children will require about 
three and a half feet for each swing. I should be inclined to 
limit the height of swings for the older children to twelve or 
fourteen feet also. These will require about four feet to a 
swing. 

The Swing Fittings. — The ordinary tees and elbows for regu- 
lar pipe can be obtained at any hardware store, but where all 
the apparatus is secured locally, a special fitting to attach the 
braces to the pipe will have to be made. Spalding has special 
fittings that hold the braces as well as connect the horizon- 
tal and vertical pipes, which may be purchased of him, even 
though the pipe is purchased and the work done locally. 
These fittings are expensive, but are now much cheaper 
than they were a few years ago. The strategic point is the 
collar about the pipe, which holds the rope or chain. This 
is Ukely to slip and slide, and as it has to bear all the strain, 
it should grip like a vice. The hook also that holds the 



74 Practical Conduct of Play 

chain or rope should be above reproach. If made of soft iron, 
it will wear through within less than a month in any much- 
used playground. It should be made of tempered steel that 
is both hard and tough. In the Spalding swing this friction 
is greatly reduced by having the swing work on ball bear- 
ings. I do not see any great advantage in having a swing run 
very easily, as the children tend to stay in too long any- 
way, and they do not get any exercise if the swing runs it- 
self, but it is an advantage not to have the fittings wear out. 
Spalding will furnish the designs for the framework, if the 
fittings are purchased of him, so that local men can put it 
up. 

The Swing Rope or Chain, — There are three mediums used 
to suspend the swing seat from the frame. They are bars, 
ropes, and chains. The bar swing has been used extensively 
in England and Scotland, but very little in this country until 
lately ; just now it seems to be coming in. The new play- 
grounds in Philadelphia are equipped with bar swings that are 
very fine. The bars are about an inch in diameter. Every- 
where the traditional method of supporting a swing is by a 
rope. It is not certain that we have yet discovered anything 
better. The chief danger in the playgrounds is that chil- 
dren may be struck with a swing. It is best to make the 
swing as light as possible, so as to reduce the momentum of 
the blow, though of course the chief factor in the momentum 
will be the weight of the child or children in the swing. The 
rope swing with the board seat is the lightest swing made. 
Most swings are hung with Manila rope. This is cheap, 
but it stretches out rapidly where it is exposed to the weather 
and may soon bring the board too near the ground or make 
one side lower than the other, so it hangs unevenly. The 



The Play Equipment 75 

children overcome this by tying knots in the rope, but this 
gives the swing an untidy appearance. If Manila rope is to 
be used, it should first be shrunk. I understand that the 
cordage of sailing vessels is made of hemp which does not 
stretch. If this is so, such rope should be used, if it can be 
secured, even if it does cost more. The chief difficulty with 
rope is that it will rot if left out of doors for a long time in all 
weathers ; moreover, there are likely to be rowdies in the 
neighborhood who think it a good joke to come in at night 
and cut a swing rope partially through, so that it will break 
when exposed to strain. This happened repeatedly in the 
early days of the parks, so that the park men who leave their 
swings out in all weathers and under all conditions have 
come to use chains altogether. However, the swings in the 
South Park System are supported by ropes. The rope swing 
is especially suited to any system where, for any reason, 
the swings need to be taken down frequently, as is usually 
the case in unfenced playgrounds. 

A large variety of steel chains are in use, but the one that is 
coming to be generally chosen is the chain with links about 
one foot long ; each link is really a bar which connects by a 
looped end with the next bar in the chain. These bars flare 
in the middle and are about one half inch in diameter. There 
are several very decided advantages which these swing chains 
have. They are of galvanized steel and do not rust much. 
They will stand the weather. They do not stretch. They 
cannot be cut and do not need to be taken in to protect them 
from the elements. There are also disadvantages. The 
swing is too heavy, the link is not large enough to get a good 
grip on it, and it is too hot in summer and too cold in winter 
for comfort. These objections would be largely overcome if 



76 Practical Conduct of Play 

a piece of rubber hose or some similar substance were put on 
the lower links. In a number of places, especially in school 
yards, I have seen a slender steel chain not unHke a dog chain 
used. This chain is not strong enough or hard enough and 
soon breaks or wears through. 

Taking in the Swings. — When an unfenced playground is 
adjacent to residences, it will probably be necessary to take 
in the swings each night and on Sunday, because they will 
attract undesirables who will make a disturbance at times 
when the neighbors have a right to be quiet. This has been 
the source of most of the adverse criticism of playgrounds 
throughout the country. Where swings with ball bearings and 
steel links are used, it is very difficult to take them in, and the 
practice is to lock them up with a short chain to the uprights. 
Where rope swings are used, they are usually hung from hooks 
and taken in at night. The bar swing also can be taken 
down. This, however, is a good deal of bother and requires 
either the assistance of a helper or a good deal of the director's 
time. 

The Swing Board. — The swing board is the catapult that 
bowls over so many children if the swing is improperly placed. 
It should be as light and soft as possible for this reason. I 
am inclined to think that a steel board is a mistake for a num- 
ber of reasons ; it is too hard, too hot in summer, too cold in 
winter, too rusty after rains, and always too heavy. In the 
early days in New York they used to nail a bit of rubber hose 
on each side of the swing seat, so that if a child were struck 
it would be by something soft. The best thing would be a 
pneumatic edge like a bicycle tire. 

The swing board should be only a little longer than the 
width of the child. It is tiresome to have to hold your arms 



The Play Equipment ']J 

out horizontally at right angles to grasp the ropes, as is neces- 
sary where a small child is seated on a swing board that is too 
long for him. There are three traditional methods of attach- 
ing the rope to the swing seat : one is to run the ropes through 
the board and tie knots in them ; a second is to run the rope 
through the board and up on the other side to the limb of the 
tree ; and the third is to cut a notch in the swing board and 
place this over the rope. None of these methods is satisfac- 
tory in the playground, because they are all more or less danger- 
ous. The knot is Hkely to come untied, the rope to slip out of 
the notch or to wear through where it is run under the board. 
The board also wabbles more or less with any of these attach- 
ments. The approved method is to have a clamp go around 
the board terminating with a stirrup strap and eyelet of steel 
in which the rope or chain is fastened. 

Height of the Swings from the Ground. — The swings should 
be hung just high enough to keep the feet of the children 
from touching the ground. However, the children will be 
of different sizes, and if the seat is hung high enough to clear 
the feet of all, it will be too high for the little people. The 
best that can be done will be to have swings for different ages 
with a medium height for each. This will probably mean, 
however, as has been said, that the feet of some of the children 
will touch and in consequence that the earth will be dug out 
underneath in certain places. This hollow is likely to fill 
with water after rains, and as the children swing back and 
forth, they splash themselves and others. To prevent this, 
a board or cement floor about three feet wide is often placed 
beneath the swings. 

The Swing Space. — The swings for the most part belong to 
the little children and should be in their part of the playground, 



78 Practical Conduct of Play 

but it must always be remembered that the value of the swing 
to the child is trifling as compared with games, and therefore 
the central spaces should never be used for the apparatus. 
It must be remembered also that the swing is a very dangerous 
piece of apparatus. The uninitiated are apt to think that the 
children are going to be hurt by falling out of the swing. 
Children are often hurt by being struck by swings, seldom by 
falling out of them. For this reason the swings should always 
be at the side, and in general the swing framework should be 
parallel with the fence and just far enough away so that the 
children will not strike the fence as they swing. In some 
places the swing space is roped or chained off from the balance 
of the playground, so that there may be no danger of a child's 
running in front of a swing without being aware of what he 
is doing. 

Erecting the Swing Apparatus. — If there is a skillful iron- 
worker in the neighborhood, he can easily erect the framework 
for the swings. Any ingenious man who understands rope 
splicing can make the swings, if ropes are used. This kind of 
construction will greatly reduce the cost, but doubtless the 
project will not look quite so finished and it may not be quite 
so safe as though the equipment were purchased from one of 
the companies. Apparatus may be ordered in various ways. 
What is often done is to let the contract for the installation 
of a complete playground outfit. This means that the com- 
pany not only furnish the equipment, but that they must send 
a gang of men, perhaps from Massachusetts to Missouri, in 
order to erect it. If they are told to put this equipment into 
the playground and are not definitely shown where it is to be 
placed, they will probably set it up in the center of the play- 
ground space where it will be most conspicuous and where 



The Play Equipment 79 

an eighth of an acre of apparatus can easily ruin three acres 
of playground. Even when the company is shown where to 
place the apparatus, this method of equipping a ground is 
seldom, if ever, wise. The shipping of heavy pipe and groups 
of workmen across the country is very expensive and entirely 
unnecessary. The pipe can always be purchased locally and 
put up by any ironworker of experience from the designs 
furnished by the apparatus companies. On the other hand, 
if there is no one in the community who has had experience in 
such work, it may be wise to order all the fittings from the 
company, or if the city is near the company's works, it may be 
wise to order the pipe also and perhaps to have it installed 
entirely by the company. In general it will be found that it 
takes much longer to have the equipment installed by the 
machine companies than by local people. 

How Shall the Children Swing ? — I have said that the swing 
is the most dangerous physically of all the apparatus in the 
ground. It is also the most dangerous morally. In Seward 
Park in the early days, one might have seen at any time a wall 
of men standing next to the fence and watching the big girls 
who were standing up in the swings, until finally Julia Rich- 
mond reaHzed the significance of what was going on and got 
the park authorities to build a soHd high fence in front of the 
swings. A still more dangerous custom is allowing men to 
swing girls who stand up. Girls should not be allowed to 
stand up in swings unless they wear bloomers or are in a yard 
into which outsiders cannot see. Sometimes a new director 
thinks it a part of her duty to swing the children, but of course 
the only considerable advantage of the swing comes from 
swinging yourself. When you stand and pump yourself up, 
a swing is a pretty complete gymnasium, exercising nearly 



8o Practical Conduct of Play 

every muscle in the body. It is excellent for the back muscles 
especially and for the heart and lungs. 

Turns at the Swing. — In the beginning there are always 
many quarrels over the swings. A child gets into the swing 
and wants to stay there, but there are several other children 
who want to use it. This makes it seem all the more de- 
sirable to the one in possession, and the situation is likely 
to become acute if there is no one to adjust matters. Va- 
rious methods to ease the strain have been used in different 
places. A very common method is for the director to appoint 
a monitor, who sees that each child stays so long and no longer 
in the swing. This usually means that each child may have 
ten swings of five minutes or something of the kind. In some 
places the teacher rings a bell every five minutes, and every 
one is required to change. I have often seen fifteen or twenty 
children standing in line for a swing, and sometimes these 
children were playing catch or something of the kind to 
while the time away. However, this always indicates a very 
congested playground, or a poorly conducted one where there 
is little going on. The games and other activities are 
more valuable than the swing, and the most successful play- 
ground is the one where the swings are empty and the games 
are full rather than vice versa. Full swings and no games 
is sure proof that the whole playground needs speeding up. 
The swing is a piece of nearly standard attractiveness against 
which the teacher has to compete in organizing the play. The 
teacher who can make the games more attractive than the 
swings is a success. 

In Conclusion. — It would appear from what has been said 
that there are many physical and moral dangers connected 
with the swing, that nearly all of the criticisms of the playground 



The Play Equipment 8i 

come from its use at night, that it is on the whole the costliest 
single piece of apparatus in most playgrounds. In return for 
this the swing offers a mild emotional stimulus and some good 
physical exercise, though certain children are always made sea- 
sick by it. One can but ask, "Is it worth the cost?" The 
swing is a purely individual piece of apparatus. It does not 
require companions for its success. Everything indicates 
that it belongs in the back yard rather than in the playground. 
It always interferes with the play activities that are really 
more valuable. It makes it more difficult to get the children 
into the story period, into the ring game, into the folk dance, 
or any of the other activities. The swing creates no loyalty 
or friendship, no habit except selfishness. It does not belong 
in the playground at all. Yet it is one of the main advertise- 
ments of the playground to the children, and it is questionable 
whether the attendance of the children can be secured with- 
out it. 

The Slide. — The slide is not like the sand, a natural and 
universal form of child play, inasmuch as a special piece of 
equipment is required for it, but the interest which the slide 
has come to satisfy is racially old. Otters and muskrats and 
elephants and I know not what other animals have slides of 
their own. It will be found in all of our cities that, wherever 
there is a smooth incline that is accessible, it is kept well 
polished by the children, whether it be the stone coping to a 
terrace or the banister of the house. Our modern slide seeks 
to satisfy better an old love. 

The Rome-made Slide. — All that is strictly needed for a slide 
is some smooth, inclined piece of wood or metal down which 
one can slip. In the early days, these sHdes were usually made 
by supporting planks in an incHned position and having a lad- 



82 Practical Conduct of Play 

der by which to climb to the upper end. These planks served 
very well, if they were free from slivers, but most of them were 
made of pine, and after rains the grain was apt to rise ; in 
consequence there was great danger that the children who 
were coming down might be impaled. Similarly in our early 
wooden gymnasia there were inclined sliding poles of pine or 
cedar, which were subject to the same criticism. The next 
advance came when we began to make our slides of oak or 
maple. New York has a number of such slides about three 
feet wide, so that two or three children can come down at 
once. On the whole, however, slides can be purchased so 
cheaply now that it is scarcely worth while to make them. 

The Maple Slide. — W. R. Tothill of Chicago makes a 
maple slide in three sizes. The small kindergarten slide is 
sold by Marshall Field & Co. of Chicago for $15; the ordi- 
nary playground slide, fifteen and one half feet long and about 
eight feet high, is sold for $30; F.O.B. Chicago. This is 
an admirable slide. The slide board can be turned over, so 
that it may not get wet during rains, or it may be detached 
and taken in, if that is desired. This slide does not splinter. 
It is quite as smooth as a metal slide. It does not get so hot 
in summer or so cold in winter, and it does not get rusty. In 
very dry climates, however, it will warp or crack and cannot 
well be used. The maple slide should be waxed occasionally. 

The Steel Playground Slide. — The steel slide is much more 
expensive than the maple slide, and thus far it has not proved 
altogether satisfactory. It gets very hot in summer and very 
cold in winter, and as soon as it is scratched by the nails in 
heels of the children's shoes, it is apt to rust. A rusty slide 
cannot well be used until it is polished again. The new slides 
that are being put out show improvement, and perhaps we 



The Play Equipment 83 

may sometime have a slide that is actually rustless. However, 
thus far it seems to me the evidence rather favors the cheap 
maple slide. 

The Steel Gymnasium Slide. — These are of more recent 
origin. They are attached to the top of the gymnasium frame, 
are about thirty feet long, and cost $120. They are used 
by the older boys and girls and by the young men and women. 
A piece of apparatus similar to this is often used at the seashore 
for the bathers to sHde down into the water. A spiral slide 
like a winding stair reaching to the second or third story is 
used on many schoolhouses of the older t3^e for a fire escape. 
It is a very rapid method of leaving the building, and more 
fun than the fire. 

The Sliding Pole. — SKding poles are used in most gynma- 
siums as a means of passing from the second story to the first. 
They are used in all fire houses as an exit from the lodgings 
to the first floor where the equipment is. These poles are 
put on the end of the gymnasium frame and are generally 
enjoyed. They are steeper than the gymnasium slide and 
not so long. I once knew a boy to sHde down one of these 
poles so rapidly as to break his leg, but do not suppose this 
has often taken place. 

The Use of the Slide. — The slide, with the exception of the 
new gymnasium slide, is intended for the Httle children. Until 
recently it has been used almost entirely by them. People 
in general seem to have an idea that the slide was invented by 
the clothing merchants to wear out the children's clothes. I 
doubt, however, it if does much damage in this way. The 
slide is very smooth, and the child is not long in coming down- 
He wriggles around in his seat a good share of the time any. 
way, and the seat is not so smooth as the slide. It is also 



84 Practical Conduct of Play 

commonly supposed that the slide is dangerous for little 
children, because it is eight feet or more high. I doubt this 
conclusion also. Experience has not demonstrated the danger. 
There is a small slide in the yard of one of our neighbors 
which a half dozen small children use constantly. The oldest 
child in the group is only five, and one is only two. The two- 
year-old will go down on his back, head first, and every other 
way. There has never been a child hurt to my knowledge 
in the year it has been there. In our experience in Washington, 
where we had a slide in every playground, I never knew a 
child to be seriously injured on one. There may be some 
question again whether the slide does not belong rather to 
the private house than to the playground. The smaller 
slides are not beyond private means. 

On the surface, it is difficult to see how the child is getting 
much benefit from using the slide. Perhaps there is some 
deep psychology here that we have not perceived, but if 
there is not, although the slide is much loved by children, it 
has little value in child development. 

Tobogganing and Skiing. — There is little of either of these 
sports in the playground, but they seem to be naturally asso- 
ciated with the slide as forms of sport. Toboggan slides are 
put up each winter in certain of the Lincoln Park playgrounds 
of Chicago, and the children slide down this artificial hill on 
to the artificial lake that has been made for skating. To- 
bogganing is just now very popular in Europe, and its 
popularity is increasing. There are hundreds of toboggan 
clubs in Germany. 

Sliding with sleds is permitted on certain streets in a num- 
ber of northern cities, and the sport is always well Hked by 
the children, though it is apt to be dangerous. Policemen are 



The Play Equipment 85 

stationed at cross streets in some places to stop teams and 
pedestrians who might cause collisions. 

Skiing is the favorite sport of Scandinavia and is also pop- 
ular in the more mountainous sections of Germany. It is 
very popular in our own northwest. In some of our northern 
cities many of the children come to school on skis and spend 
most of their recesses sliding on them, but it would hardly 
do to attempt the descent from such towers as are often con- 
structed for the sport. 

The Seesaw. — The seesaw is a piece of apparatus that 
children have always made for themselves by placing a board 
across or through the fence. They always enjoy it, but it 
has very Httle apparent value. It is a purely individualistic 
amusement, which affords neither physical, intellectual, nor 
social training. I have always questioned whether or not 
the seesaw is worth while. In any case it belongs, beyond 
doubt, in the back yard rather than in the playground. The 
seesaw is one of the most dangerous pieces of apparatus. 
Children, naturally reckless, will often stand up on each end 
of it, and very soon one of them is likely to be thrown off on 
his head. It is great sport to slip off the end when you are 
down and let your companion come down with a bang, perhaps 
to break a leg. Then you can stand on the middle of the see- 
saw and work it all yourself until you fall off, — an accident 
which is Hkely to happen speedily. If the bought seesaws with 
the handles and safety devices are used, and the children can be 
required always to sit down, there will not be so many accidents. 
The short seesaw on the high standard is the one that is most 
dangerous, as it makes a more acute angle with the ground, 
or, in other words, the incline while it is in the air is greater. 
The longer the seesaw board and the lower the standard, the 



86 Practical Conduct of Play 

safer it is, but for the most part, the tamer it is also. As I 
have said, I do not regard the seesaw as worth while, but, if it 
is used, it is best to use one with handles, on a standard that 
is not much more than two and a half feet high. The seesaw 
is easily made, but most of the home-made ones are unsatis- 
factory on the playground. 

The rocking boat or " merry widow " is a piece of apparatus 
somewhat similar to the seesaw in action. It is, however, a 
much more expensive and less common piece of apparatus. 

The Flying Dutchman. — This is the name that the chil- 
dren commonly apply to a plank that is fastened horizon- 
tally with ball bearings to the top of a post. A child lies or 
sits down on this plank, probably one on each end, and is 
whirled around by other children until he is dizzy and seasick. 
I look upon it as a pure invention of the devil. I cannot see 
any good that any child can possibly get from this sort of 
sport. 

In some places, this takes a very elaborate form. There are 
a number of arms out at some distance from the ground with 
swings fastened to them, so that the apparatus becomes a 
sort of combination merry-go-round. 

The Merry-go-round. — The merry-go-round is much in 
favor with park superintendents. There is no other piece of 
apparatus that can be used constantly by so large a number 
of children. It is a sort of circular grandstand on which the 
children sit in two tiers, while others run them round by the 
arms at the side. One of these merry-go-rounds will often 
be used almost continuously by from twenty to forty children. 
Several years ago, while I was Supervisor of the playgrounds 
of Washington, we were presented with a very fine one which 
cost four hundred dollars. It was set on ball bearings and ran 



The Play Equipment ^'] 

around very easily. We placed it in a play park not far from 
one of the public schools. In a few days a delegation of 
teachers came down to see us. They said the children went 
over and rode on the merry-go-round at noon and were so 
seasick all the afternoon that they could not study and that 
the children had often vomited in consequence. We moved 
it to another playground and a few days later a delegation of 
parents came down with the same complaint. In the merry- 
go-round I am unable to see that any one is benefited except 
the child who pushes it around, and he might as well saw 
wood. If the apparatus runs very easily, some of the children 
are sure to become dizzy, and probably nearly all are affected 
more or less. I myself feel somewhat dizzy and upset for an 
hour after riding on one of the things. The apparatus is 
very costly, and as it is a positive injury to many of the chil- 
dren, it probably should be excluded from the playground. 

There is also a merry-go-round which runs on small wheels 
on an iron track. This the children themselves operate by a 
lever arrangement, using a motion much the same as in rowing. 
This piece of apparatus certainly affords good exercise. I 
suspect that the working of the lever largely overcomes the 
tendency to dizziness, but of this I am not sure. 

The Giant Stride. — The giant stride comes nearest to the 
original hanging vine or monkey's tail to swing from. But 
in its modern form it is an invention that has grown out of 
the play movement. The main portion of the apparatus is a 
tall pole, usually from fourteen to eighteen feet in height. The 
modern ones are all made of steel pipe about five inches in 
diameter and set about four feet in concrete. The head is 
set on the top of the pipe with ball bearings, and attached to 
this revolving head are six ropes or chains carrying rope or 



88 Practical Conduct of Play 

steel ladders with three or four short rungs. The ladders are 
intended to hold on by. The child takes hold of the ladder 
and paces about the pole, touching the ground every fifteen 
or twenty feet, hence the name. The giant stride is much 
appreciated by children more than ten years old. 

In country sections a giant stride is often made by mounting 
a wagon or plow wheel on the top of a pole and attaching knotted 
ropes to the periphery of the wheel. The first forms of the 
giant stride everywhere were made in some such way. The 
knotted rope serves very well to hold on to, though it is not 
quite so satisfactory as the ladder. The rope ladder with 
wooden rungs is more satisfactory than the steel while it 
lasts, because it is pleasanter to hold, and because it does not 
hurt so much as the steel ladder when you are hit by it. Of 
course, it is not so permanent and does not stand the weather 
so well. 

Location of the Giant Stride. — The giant stride belongs to 
the older children and should be in their section of the play- 
ground. It should stand in a corner of the yard whenever 
possible, so that it may be out of the way of the games. It is 
a very good piece to fill up an angle somewhere which might 
otherwise be wasted. The children should be taught how to 
get off the giant stride, as they are sometimes hurt by standing 
in their tracks, after dropping off, until they are struck by the 
next child who comes around. The child should always dodge 
out as soon as he drops off. 

Locking up the Giant Stride. — As a rule there is some diffi- 
culty in putting the stride out of business when it is not sup- 
posed to be used. Some are so made that the ladders can be 
taken off. In some the ropes can be detached from the 
wheel above. The common method is to chain the ropes or 



The Play Equipment 89 

chains to the post ; this is not very satisfactory, as they will 
still slip around in spite of the chain. 

The Teeter Ladder. — Probably the piece of apparatus 
that has been most criticised in the playgrounds is the teeter 
ladder. It is, as the name indicates, a horizontal ladder 
balanced in the middle, and just high enough for the children 
to reach. They take hold of each end with their hands and go 
up and down, much as they would on a seesaw. It is pretty 
good exercise and tends to pull the shoulders up where they 
belong. The main trouble with the teeter ladder occurs 
while the children are learning, but it is never free from 
criticism. The year the playgrounds were opened in New 
York, I sent out a questionnaire, asking if there was any piece 
of apparatus that they wished to dispense with. The teeter 
ladder got more votes than all the other apparatus put to- 
gether. There are three important dangers in its use, especially 
for children who are just making a beginning with it. The first 
of these is in the method of getting off. The child who is down, 
whether from thoughtlessness or cussedness, lets go, allowing the 
child who is up to fall, and the ladder perhaps strikes him on 
the head or shoulders. This is apt to result in a sprained ankle 
or other severe injury. The second trouble that I have found 
with them is that the children love to sit on them, using them 
like a seesaw. This is all very well if they are careful, but if 
the ladder is brought down sharply when a child is not watch- 
ing, he may be thrown off on his head. What came very 
near being a fatal accident once happened in this way in one 
of our Washington playgrounds. The third objection is 
harder to guard against in a mixed playground. Two girls 
get on the teeter ladder in summer dresses. When the girl 
comes down she falls through her dress, or the dress blows 



90 Practical Conduct of Play 

out like a balloon. When we get all of our playground girls 
in bloomers or when they have a yard entirely to themselves 
where no one can see in, this criticism will be pointless, but not 
before. We used to make the rule that the girls who went 
on the teeter ladder must pin their dresses or put a rubber 
band around them, but while the ones instructed might obey, 
other children might come in at any moment, and go at once 
upon the teeter ladder. Of course these difficulties will be- 
come less and less the longer the playgrounds are open. 

W. F. Tothill of Chicago has recently put out a teeter ladder 
with springs, which obviates certain of the dangers of the old 
type. 

The Outdoor Gymnasium. — The outdoor gymnasium occu- 
pies the central space in the playgrounds both of New York 
and of Chicago. I doubt if it is worthy of this prominence. 
Gymnasiums and playgrounds are not the same thing. It 
must be said, however, in its defense that the outdoor gym- 
nasium is not a real gymnasium. It has no pulley weights, 
rowing machines, stall bars, dumb-bells, Indian clubs, or wands, 
and often lacks the horse, the buck, and the parallel bars. It is 
mostly a monkey house to climb about in. It contains a trapeze, 
parallel rings, a horizontal ladder, usually climbing ropes or 
poles, sliding poles or a slide, a horizontal bar, and a set of 
traveling rings. The traveling rings, the slide, and the hori- 
zontal bar are constantly in use, but the other features are 
little used in most places. The parallel rings are also often 
used considerably, but mostly in the doing of stunts that are 
of doubtful advantage to the doer, because many of them are 
likely to result in strains. Of all of these activities the only 
one that is really gymnastic is the use of the horizontal bar. 
The outdoor gymnasium is not used for any sort of class work 



The Play Equipment 91 

or usually for any sort of teaching. It is in fact a monkey 
house, as has been indicated. The traveling rings are the 
most popular feature. These are most popular with children 
between nine and fourteen years of age and especially popular 
with the girls. They will often go back and forth on the rings 
many times without seeming to weary. Where the horse and 
the parallel bars are furnished, they are often used a good deal, 
but are not a part of the framework which is usually termed 
the outdoor gymnasium. The horse and the buck do not 
stand the playground conditions very well, on account of 
the rain and snow, and they are sometimes cut at night by 
rowdies. 

Most of the stunts in an outdoor gymnasium involve a 
risk of falling. To minimize the danger the earth should be 
excavated to a depth of about six inches, and sand or tan bark 
filled in. 

The outdoor gymnasium is one of the chief advertisements 
of the play system. It is costly and looks imposing as it 
stands out in the open, but its looks are more imposing than 
its results. 

THE MANUFACTURE F5. THE PURCHASE OF EQUIPMENT 

Where the equipment is made by local people, it can usu- 
ally be erected for one half to one quarter of what it will cost 
if it is bought directly from the machine companies and in- 
stalled by them. However, the home-made equipment often 
does not look quite so well and is not quite so strong as that 
which is purchased from the outside. But this is not neces- 
sarily so, and if the supervisor has a reasonable knowledge of 
the subject, or is able to employ a director of construction, 
or has at hand a mechanic who is reasonably skillful, there is 



92 Practical Conduct of Play 

no reason why the equipment should not be manufactured at 
much less cost than it can be purchased, and be just as well 
made. If the equipment is to be furnished and installed by 
outside companies, a time limit should always be introduced 
into the contract, to prevent delay. 

In the course of time it ought to be possible for the schools 
themselves to manufacture nearly all of their play equipment. 
It is believed that nearly all of this work will be the best kind 
of manual training for the students and that it will give them 
a new sense of proprietorship and a new interest which will 
be very helpful in all of the playground activities. The boys 
may well make the running track, jumping pits, and jumping 
standards, and they can put up the horizontal bar, and even 
the swings, under competent supervision. They should do 
just as much of this as they can, not only for economy's sake 
but because it will probably be the most valuable manual and 
social training which they can get. 

When the writer was Secretary of the Playground Asso- 
ciation of America, he sought to have the play equipment 
standardized, so that the fittings and pipe might be furnished 
directly by the steel companies, but there was so much oppo- 
sition from the equipment companies that he was unable to 
do anything about it. Most of the equipment and supplies 
which are now furnished to playgrounds cost more than they 
should, and it is to be hoped that, as a result of our new 
feeling for the abolition of contract labor in penitentiaries 
and other public institutions, and our desire that these 
institutions should make different kinds of public supplies, 
the manufacture of play equipment may be undertaken, 
especially the various kinds of balls, bats, and the like. What 
better atonement could a convict make for his offenses 



The Play Equipment 93 

against society than by thus providing for the well-being of 
the children. It seems likely that such work would also 
elicit a better response from the criminals themselves than 
almost anything else that might be undertaken. Many 
of them have a grudge against society, but they may still 
be glad to have the children play. 

Making Repairs. — Equipment should always be kept in a 
state of perfect repair, as it otherwise becomes a source of 
danger. In a system of any considerable size, one or more 
repair men should be employed regularly. 

EQUIPMENT FOR SCHOOL GROUNDS 

For the Rural Schools. — It is not essential that equipment, 
such as swings, seesaws, giant strides, and similar apparatus, 
should be put into the grounds of rural schools. Most of 
this apparatus may be and often is furnished to the children 
at home, but ofttimes the only opportunity which they have 
to play social games is while they are at school, so it is much 
more important that they should have space for such games 
than swings. 

For City Schools. — Probably the place where there is most 
criticism of the play movement is in connection with city 
schools. They are apt to be built in thickly settled sections, 
often with very inadequate grounds closely surrounded by 
houses. Many of these grounds are unfenced, and if a con- 
siderable amount of equipment is put into them, there is always 
a tendency for rowdies to use it in the evening, with the result 
that the neighborhood is annoyed and often protests. If 
equipment is placed in unfenced school grounds, it should be 
taken down and stored away at night in order to prevent this 
annoyance. There is much very unsatisfactory equipment 



94 Practical Conduct of Play 

also being erected at the schools by people who have seen 
swings in private yards and seesaws with one or two children 
on each end, but who do not at all realize the problem where 
there are hundreds of children. The result is that many of 
the swings are not strong enough for the strain they have to 
bear, and many of the seesaws are dangerous. 

THE VALUE OF EQUIPMENT 

If this chapter has shown anything significant in regard to 
equipment, it has shown that we know very little about it 
and that there has been very little written to show the value 
of different pieces of apparatus and in what this value consists. 
Play is often spoken of as a physical activity, but play is about 
equally physical, intellectual, and social. The value of ap- 
paratus, however, is largely confined to the physical and emo- 
tional side, as it has very little to offer on the intellectual or 
social side. We are more or less cognizant of the physical 
value of most pieces of apparatus, but we understand very 
little of the emotional appeal of the sand bin, the wading pool, 
the seesaw, or the swing, and it is probable that it is the 
emotional appeal of these pieces of apparatus which is really 
significant. As we do not understand the nature of the values 
that are to be sought through equipment, we have no standard by 
which to estimate these values and in accordance with which to 
manufacture play apparatus. The equipment which children 
have always used in the past has been erected almost without 
cost, while modern equipment seems to be unnecessarily expen- 
sive. The swing which is hung from the limb of a tree costs 
perhaps twenty-five cents, while the playground swing will cost 
from ten to twenty-five dollars. Undoubtedly the old-time 
swing was a much better swing in its general appeal than is 



The Play Equipment 95 

the costly one of the playground. It is not to be expected that 
the machine companies will study equipment from this point 
of view, or will seek ways of making it cheaper. When we 
come to look at education in a large way, as covering all phases 
and types of mental, emotional, and physical processes, we 
shall see in this play equipment one of our large unsolved 
educational problems which the rapid play development of 
the present time forces upon our immediate attention. 

THE PLAYGROUND WITHOUT EQUIPMENT 

It must not be inferred from anything that has been said that 
I am advocating a playground without apparatus. While I 
regard the training given by apparatus as less important than 
the training given by games, it seems almost necessary under 
existing conditions in this country to have the apparatus in 
order to induce the children to attend the playground. The 
playgrounds of Cambridge, Mass., have been maintained with- 
out apparatus for the last six or seven years with fairly good 
attendance, and there are doubtless others of which the same 
has been true ; but the attendance has probably not been as 
large as it would have been if the equipment had been pro- 
vided. We have ample evidence, however, that it is possible 
to maintain excellent playgrounds without equipment and I 
myself believe the most successful playgrounds in the world 
contain no equipment whatever. In Germany there is a 
curriculum of play according to which the children go for 
stated periods to the playgrounds and have these games as 
regular exercises. These playgrounds have no equipment 
other than that needed for the games. Probably the most 
successful playgrounds in the world, however, are the play- 
grounds of the English Preparatory and Public Schools. At 



g6 Practical Conduct of Play 

these schools every boy plays football, cricket, and certain 
other games, and a goodly part of each afternoon is devoted 
to them. Without any question, the best playgrounds in this 
country are those connected with a similar class of schools, 
such as Lawrenceville, Groton, St. Marks, and so on, which 
also are entirely without equipment, except that needed for 
playing games. 

On the other hand, the municipal grounds of England have 
abundant apparatus and are in charge of caretakers. They 
would be classed by any one of experience, however, as play- 
grounds of an inferior order. The same is true of many 
grounds maintained by park boards in this country. The 
playground that has a great deal of apparatus, such as swings 
and the like, presupposes not a play director, but a caretaker, 
and a playground of this kind always tends to make a care- 
taker of the director ; it always distracts from the organized 
games, taking too much of the director's time and energy to 
leave him free to do the larger things. It is entirely possible, 
as experience has shown, to have a very successful playground 
with no permanent equipment ; but such a ground requires 
a well-trained director of high type, and presupposes such a 
degree of organization as does not thus far exist here. As 
the work progresses and becomes better organized, and as the 
directors become better trained, we may expect the equip- 
ment to fill a smaller and smaller place in play organization. 
The abundant equipment in Chicago has probably always led 
the directors to depend too much upon it and has distracted 
from the organization of games. 



CHAPTER VI 

SWIMMING POOLS 

Swimming is usually the most popular feature of the play- 
grounds in summer wherever it is provided, and thus allows 
of the most intensive use of a small parcel of ground that is 
possible. An outdoor swimming pool fifty by eighty feet in 
size, covering with its booths and all appurtenances less than 
one quarter of an acre, will frequently be used by two thou- 
sand swimmers a day, and sometimes two or three times 
that number. The swimming pool is usually the most expen- 
sive feature of the playground to construct and to operate, 
but it is the easiest means of securing an attendance. Unless 
they are prevented, boys will often bathe two or three times 
nearly every day where a good outdoor pool is accessible. 
This universal appeal bespeaks a real need. 

Nearly all if not all physiologists recommend swimming as 
exercise. There is Httle danger of strain. It uses most of 
the muscles of the body, the legs, and the arms. It is adjust- 
able to any one's strength, since one may swim long or short 
distances, fast or slow. 

Swimming in cold water, provided it is not too cold, is a 
tonic to the whole system in hot weather and makes one feel 
invigorated and more efhcient, if he does not stay in too long. 
This is especially true of the salt bathing at the ocean side. 
On the other hand, the hot sulphur and salt baths that are 
found at some interior places, while very delightful at the 
H 97 



98 Practical Conduct of Play 

time, are enervating and likely to lead to colds. Swimming 
is often advocated for reasons of cleanliness, but this does not 
apply to the use of the swimming pool. Unless the person is 
clean before he goes in, the pool will soon become unfit to use. 
Swimming is to be recommended for social reasons also. 
Water is thicker than air and seems to unite those who occupy 
it together. About half of all summer vacations probably are 
spent at the seaside and that largely for the sake of swimming. 
The person who does not care for the water and has not learned 
any of its arts is cut off from much social recreation. The 
ability to swim may be the means of saving the life of the 
swimmer or of another and its value as life insurance for one- 
self and friends would seem to be a sufficient reason for learning. 
It sometimes offers an opportunity for heroism that must ap- 
peal to any young person of spirit. The consciousness of the 
possession of the ability is a great comfort on many occasions. 

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SWIMMING POOL 

The construction of a swimming pool does not necessarily 
involve as great an expense as people usually think. The first 
expense is naturally the excavation, but that often must be 
done in any case for the foundation of the building, if there 
is a building. Moreover, a site where there is a natural 
depression may often be chosen for an outside pool. The 
connection with the water supply and with the sewer often 
costs nearly as much as the excavation. Concreting the 
pool is likely to be the chief expense. The concreting needs 
to be heavy and will cost from five to ten dollars a cubic yard.^ 
Perhaps a safe estimate for the north might be a pool wall 
averaging one foot in thickness. This would allow one cubic 
1 See note, page 71. 



Swimming Pools 99 

yard to cover 27 square feet of surface. If the pool is 90 feet 
by 40 in size, the bottom would measure 3600 square feet. 
If one end is eight feet deep, its area will be 8 times 40, or 
320 square feet. The shallow end, three feet deep, will have 
an area of 120 square feet. The shallow part is usually the 
longer, so the pool may perhaps average five feet, which would 
give 460 square feet for each side. The total area of 4940 
square feet would be equal to 4940 cubic feet, if these surfaces 
average a foot in thickness. This reduces to 183 J cubic 
yards, costing, at $10 per cubic yard, $1835. The concrete is 
sometimes reenforced with steel rods and sometimes not. 
The architects with whom I have spoken seem to regard the 
reenforcing as of doubtful advantage. There will need to be 
booths, toilets, and showers, of course. If the swimming pool is 
in a building, these will not involve much extra expense, but in 
the open air they will add one half to the cost of the concreting, 
or more than this, according to the way they are constructed. 
It is of great advantage to have a smooth, white surface 
for this will reflect the light so that the bottom may be clearly 
seen at all times, enabling the attendant always to judge of the 
condition of the water and making drowning less likely. In a 
number of cases it has happened that a child has gone down in 
a swimming pool without making a sound and has been 
drowned or nearly so while the pool was nearly full of children. 
The greatest possible safeguard, perhaps, against such an 
accident is to have the inside of the pool and the water in 
such condition that the bottom can always be clearly seen. 
A smooth, white-tile lining is of great advantage for this pur- 
pose. It is, however, difhcult to protect in the winter and an 
outdoor pool thus hned requires to be filled with manure or 
some other similar substance to prevent its freezing. 



lOO Practical Conduct of Play 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SWIMMING POOL 

At most private bathing beaches, it is the custom to charge 
from twenty-five to fifty cents for the use of a bathing suit. 
But as a charge cannot usually be made in the playground, and 
the furnishing and laundering of bathing suits is likely to be 
a considerable source of expense for any pool, the policy 
should be to minimize their use. If the pool is entirely sur- 
rounded by its booths or a soHd fence, the boys at least should 
go in naked. This is better in every way and more enjoyable. 
One-piece white suits should be furnished for the girls. It is 
necessary to do this, or the pool will not be much used by 
them. Certain hours may well be reserved for the men, either 
in the evening or in the late afternoon. It probably would 
not greatly restrict the use of the pool by adults if a charge of 
ten cents were made for trunks and a towel, or the men might 
be allowed to go in naked if they preferred. I doubt if it is 
best for men and boys to go in naked together. A similar 
charge might well be made for the adult women. 

In some cases the authorities require the users to bring 
their own suits and towels, and of course there are advan- 
tages in this from the hygienic standpoint, but it is Hkely to 
restrict the use considerably. There has been a great deal of 
trouble in Chicago from the stealing of the towels, especially 
by the women. 

The Force. — In the outdoor pools of Chicago, one person 
gives out the suits, two persons take charge of the booths, 
one looks after the showers ; there are two or three life-savers 
in the pool, and one person sees that the lines are kept while 
the bathers are coming in and going out, thus making six or 
seven people devoted to the mere management of the pool, 



Swimming Pools loi 

quite independent of the laundry work. It would seem that 
three people are probably about as few as an outdoor pool can 
get along with if bathing suits and towels are furnished. This 
would mean one to give out suits and towels, one assistant in 
the booths who might also be the laundress, and one life-saver 
and teacher of swimming. 

There is always more or less trouble with the stealing of 
fixtures from the showers and valuables from the bathers. 
There is trouble also from the filthy conduct of certain children 
who tend to use the baths as toilets. The booths and pool 
need to be carefully secured during the time when they are 
not in use, in order to prevent vandalism, immorality, and 
accidents. 

The Season. — The swimming season in the outdoor pools 
of Chicago is from the last of May until about the middle of 
September, but more than nine tenths of the swimming is 
done in the summer months. This is a short season, but during 
this time the pools have an intensive use. Swimming is the 
chief drawing card of all the park playgrounds of the city. 

In the greater part of the south the swimming season is 
eight or nine months a year instead of three, and the hotter the 
country the greater is the relief brought by swimming. The 
pools would not cost as much to construct as they do in the 
north, because the walls need not be so thick in a country of 
little frost, but public swimming pools outside of the Y.M.C.A's. 
are almost unknown in southern cities. The south is the ideal 
place for the open-air swimming pool, and it is to be hoped 
that its development will soon become a part of the munici- 
pal and school programs. Attractive public swimming pools 
might be among the chief allurements of many of the southern 
cities. 



I02 Practical Conduct of Play 



THE HYGIENE OF THE SWIMMING POOL 

The water in the swimming pool comes into contact with the 
mucous membranes all over the body, for it is drawn more or less 
constantly into the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, and beginners 
always swallow more or less of it. Ideally, no one should ever 
swim in water which is not fit to drink, as more or less of it al- 
ways finds its way into the stomach, or at least into the mouth. 

There are many ways whereby the water may become un- 
sanitary in swimming pools. Naturally the first consideration 
is that it shall be sanitary in the first place. If the city water 
supply contains germs of typhoid fever or other contagious 
diseases, a warm dark pool in the basement of a school or 
other building furnishes an admirable place for them to mul- 
tiply until the water may itself became a source of danger 
by the mere increase of germs. 

It is practically impossible to see that all the bathers cleanse 
themselves thoroughly before going into the pool, which 
means that more or less of the excretions from the sweat 
glands, or in other words the waste of the body, will inevi- 
tably be thrown into the pool. The water tends to close the 
pores of the body and prevent perspiration, especially when 
the water is cold, but in any vigorous swimming races, the body 
perspires more or less and this waste enters the water. In any 
pool where there are small children, it is almost if not quite 
impossible to prevent some of them from urinating in the 
pool. The cold water always tends to produce this effect, 
and it is often only by a decided effort that urination can be 
prevented. Learners who are constantly getting their mouths 
full of water tend to spit it out, thus casting the bacteria 
contained in their mouths and throats into the pool. 



Swimming Pools 103 

Dangers from Impurities in the Water. — Cases have been 
reported where several hundred children have contracted 
inflammation of the eyes from the pool. I was told at one of 
our great state normal schools that nearly all the students 
who made use of the pool were afflicted with a burning rash of 
the skin, which it was supposed that they had caught in the 
water. 

It is said that at one of the Y.M.C.A's. in the south more 
than one hundred young men caught gonorrhea from the 
swimming pool, and that more than two hundred girls con- 
tracted vulvo vaginitis from the swimming pool in one of our 
city playgrounds. All tests made at swimming pools where 
no precautions are taken to keep the water sterile, show a very 
rapid increase in bacterial content from the time the water is 
put in until it is changed, but there are many other defilements 
in the way of waste tissue, urine, and various forms of dirt that 
a bacteriological test does not detect. 

In Gary they found that the colors tended to come out of the 
bathing suits and cause inflammation of the eyes. As the 
result they now require the boys to go in naked and the girls 
to wear a one-piece suit of white. 

Preventive Measures. — Of course the first consideration 
must be to see that the water that is introduced into the pool 
is pure water in the first place. Until recently the only 
method of purification that was followed after that was to 
change the water about once a week. This has been found, 
however, not to be sufiicient, as the water contains a great 
many bacteria after one day's use. The custom in Chicago 
is to change the water twice a week and to let all the pools 
overflow slightly at night and thus carry off the impurities 
that may be floating on the surface. In many pools, they 



I04 Practical Conduct of Play 

arrange to have a small influx of water and slight overflow 
continuously. But none of these means seems to be entirely 
sufflcient. Moreover, it is expensive to change the water, 
as it often costs five to ten dollars to fill the pool. 

In some of the newer pools there is an arrangement for 
continuous filtration, so that the water is kept moving through 
filters of quartz sand all the time. Under this method the 
water is found actually to decrease in bacteriological count 
from day to day. It is the custom to change the water once 
in about five weeks. But there are other things besides bac- 
teria, such as urine and other body waste, that make water 
disagreeable to bathe in, and the bacteriological count is not 
an altogether satisfactory test. It is said that when the 
sewage of London has gone through the purifying process 
there in force, the guide is accustomed to draw off a glass 
of the water, take a drink himself, and offer it to the tour- 
ists. Chemical analysis has proved this water to be as pure 
as the drinking water of the city. If this is true of sewage, it 
ought to be possible to secure effective filtration of a swim- 
ming pool. On the other hand, it is doubtful if the methods 
of filtration thus far employed actually remove either the 
urine or the ammonia or some other of the impurities, and 
there is always an aesthetic objection to bathing in water 
that others have used. 

Professor Franklin of Lehigh University has invented a 
swimming pool with a traveling bulkhead which allows the 
water to be filtered every two or three hours. He describes 
this pool as '' completely sanitary," but in actual fact the 
sanitation of a pool depends at least as much on the people as 
the pool, and there can be no completely sanitary pool until 
the people who use it are completely sanitary in their habits. 



Swimming Pools 105 

In a number of pools the water is sterilized every day with 
hyperchloride of lime or calcium and alum. Only very mi- 
nute amounts — one pound to 100,000 gallons — are used 
and this is said to render the pool almost absolutely sterile 
for twenty-four hours or more. Recently some of the 
Y.M.C.A. pools in New York have used the ultra violet 
rays from the mercury vapor lamp for sterilizing purposes. 
But it must be remembered that this steriHzation cannot 
remove urine or other impurities of like character. 

The dirt and hair from the body tend to accumulate and 
are sometimes seen, in clear water, in masses at the bottom 
of the pool. In Gary this accumulation of dirt, which must 
be stirred into the water more or less by the bathers, is re- 
moved daily with a vacuum cleaner, which is shoved along on 
the bottom of the pool. 

To prevent persons with gonorrhea or running sores from 
bathing, it is the custom in college pools and Y.M.C.A. 
pools to require the men to go in naked and to exclude all who 
show any signs of irritation, or of having running sores. 

Wherever it is possible, there should be sunlight on the 
bathing pool. The reasons for this are numerous. It fur- 
nishes light so that one can see the condition of the water 
and that no one is drowning. Sunlight is a powerful germi- 
cide. It makes the bathing more pleasant, and it helps 
materially to heat the water if the rays come directly into 
the pool. The sunlight can be secured either by having 
an open-air pool or a pool with a glass roof. It might be 
possible to have a pool that could be either open to the air 
or glassed over by a scheme similar to that employed in the 
Patio of the Pan-American Building in Washington, and in 
some greenhouses where the glass roof is run off on wheels 



io6 Practical Conduct of Play 

when it is desired to have the interior open to the sky. 

This need not involve much extra expense or trouble in 

operation. All that is required are small wheels and an 

adjoining framework capable of supporting the weight of the 

roof. 

SWIMMING IS COMING IN 

There seems to be good reason for thinking that swimming is 
coming in as a required physical exercise and a part of any 
regular education. The London school children have long 
been taught swimming in the public swimming pools of that 
city. The same is true of Glasgow though the water outside 
is always too cold for comfortable swimming. The boys are 
taught to swim in the preparatory schools of England largely 
by the rather drastic method of throwing them in, where they 
have to swim or sink. Most of the German boys in the city 
schools at least learn to swim in the school swimming pools. 
The universities of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Columbia, 
and, I presume, many others require swimming as one of the 
conditions of graduation. Boston requires, on paper at least, 
that all of the boys and girls shall learn to swim before they 
may be graduated from the high school. In Philadelphia and 
Denver and a number of smaller cities there has been an 
attempt to teach boys of the elementary schools to swim in 
the Y.M.C.A. pools. In nearly all our large new city high 
schools swimming pools are in the plan. In many cases these 
are constructed with the building ; in others they are to be 
built later. In Brookline all the school children are given 
regular periods in the municipal baths. In Cincinnati there 
is a swimming pool as a part of the equipment of nearly all 
the large new elementary schools. In Gary there is one 
swimming pool at the Emerson School and two at the Froebel. 



Swimming Pools 107 

It would seem as though learning to swim were a part of the 
mastery of oneself in relation to environment that should 
belong to all as much as learning to walk. It evidently is not, 
however, a university subject, but an elementary subject. 
It is then that swimming and the water are most loved and 
that the necessary coordinations are most easily acquired. 
Then there is most time, and there is a reasonable certainty of 
proficiency and skill, if a beginning is made at six or seven 
years of age. For a school with a very limited ground, swim- 
ming is the best possible utilization of its space. In the large 
city schools, the swimming pool may well occupy a glass- 
roofed structure in the interior court. Thus it will get the 
sunlight and will not interfere much with the activities of the 
school. 

The school is the best place for the swimming pool because 
this location makes it possible to teach every child to swim, 
and because the pool is the most economical possible utiliza- 
tion of the restricted space usually available. It can be used 
by the children at day and by the adults at night, thus insur- 
ing the success of the social center. It is one of the features 
that are most helpful in the socializing of both the neighbor- 
hood and the school. It is very important that there should 
be a teacher of swimming, because children who have not been 
taught are apt to waste nine tenths of their energy by their 
bad methods. 

The swimming pool at the school can be under the constant 
observation of the medical inspector, and as the children are 
all known, any one who might be a source of contagion can 
be excluded. There will be less trouble from stealing and 
from filthy habits at the school, because there will be an 
opportunity to train the pupils. The water can be heated 



lo8 Practical Conduct of Play 

largely by exhaust steam, and fewer attendants and assistants 
will be required, thus lessening the cost. Such a pool can be 
used during the entire year, and if it is placed in a large school, 
it may be used to nearly or quite its maximimi capacity all 
the time. I believe that the municipal swimming pools 
such as New York has lately been building should all have 
been a part of the school equipment. 

MUNICIPAL BATHS 

Municipal baths of one kind or another are now being oper- 
ated by nearly all large cities. These baths are of .three gen- 
eral kinds : beach baths, floating baths, and swimming pools in 
the interior of the city. New York had already built or 
under construction twenty of these swimming pools, according 
to the last report that I have seen, but it may have a number 
more now. The one at Twenty-third Street and First Avenue 
covers the whole end of the block and cost nearly $300,000. 
I believe that Philadelphia has twenty-three such swimming 
pools. These municipal pools are always free to use, but 
towels are usually not furnished without charge. 

Many cities that are situated on rivers where the water is 
swift or deep maintain floating baths. A floating bath is 
entirely inclosed and is a device for safety under such con- 
ditions. There are fourteen such baths around Manhattan 
Island, which are open during the summer from five o'clock 
in the morning until nine o'clock at night, three days a week 
for women, and three days for men. Boston maintains eight 
or ten such floating baths. On hot days in New York such 
crowds seek to make use of the baths that they have to make a 
rule that no one shall stay in more than twenty minutes. 
Even then the water is so full of people that there is scarcely 



Swimming Pools 109 

room to move around. Conditions for these baths are not 
ideal in most cities, because the sewers usually empty into the 
rivers in such a way as to defile the water. Even though 
considerable effort is made to keep the water in the baths 
clean, there is always more or less oil, and the water is never 
quite what one would prefer to swim in. The Board of 
Harbor Engineers of New York has recently recommended 
that the floating baths be closed on account of the condition 
of the water. 

BATHING BEACHES 

The bathing beach is undoubtedly the most popular play- 
ground of the people during the summer time. Any one has 
only to go to Coney Island, or Asbury Park, or Atlantic City, 
or Revere Beach to be convinced of this. Not only does the 
bathing beach give coolness and exercises in the hot days of 
summer, but there is no other spectacle which seems quite so 
interesting to the public. One has only to stand on the Board- 
walk, or otherwise to observe the crowds at any of our great 
beaches who are simply looking on, to be convinced of this. 
The bathing beaches belong properly to the playgrounds. 
They are under the Playground Department in Chicago, 
Washington, and Boston, at least, and should be so wherever 
that department has come to include public recreation. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE FIELD HOUSE 

Since the creation of the South Park System of Chicago, the 
term " field house " has stood for a very pretentious neigh- 
borhood center building But as I wish to use the term in this 
chapter, it is to stand for any structure used to store supplies 
or give shelter in connection with the playground. In this 
sense it may be a mere box for the storage of balls, bats, and 
other paraphernalia, or it may be People's Palace, such as 
is found in Fuller Park, Chicago. In the playgrounds of the 
country there may be found a complete series, beginning with 
the box and ending with the elaborate and expensive field 
house. It is almost essential that there should be at least as 
much as a box. In recent years, however, the ambition of 
nearly all play systems has been to have one or more field 
houses of the elaborate type. 

THE FIRST FIELD HOUSES 

The playgrounds of many of the German schools are located 
at a distance from the school buildings, and the children go 
out to these grounds with their teachers for a two-hour period 
once or twice a week. Most of these playgrounds are pro- 
vided with water-tight boxes in which the play supplies are 
kept under lock and key. There are a number of playgrounds 
in this country, also, which are so provided. Such a box 
serves fairly well for the storing of such things as bats and 

no 



The Field House in 

balls, tennis nets, hockey sticks, and jumping standards, but 
it has to be made carefully so that supplies will not get wet, 
and it must be so strong that it cannot be easily broken into. 

The next stage in the development of the field house is 
usually the erection of a small frame building which serves 
for the storage of supplies, and perhaps holds a very small 
office for the director. In a large number of cases, this build- 
ing also has, on opposite sides, toilets for boys and girls, and 
perhaps a few shower baths. 

Supplies. — There is often a prejudice on the part of play 
authorities and others against the furnishing of supplies, such 
as baseballs, to the children, but in reality these are the most 
important parts of all the playground equipment, since with- 
out them it is almost impossible to have common participa- 
tion in games. In many sections of the city, the children are 
not able to buy baseballs, volley balls, basketballs, and other 
supplies, and in no section are they willing to furnish them 
for other children to use. This is natural enough, for it must 
be remembered that while a swing is used by an individual 
child, a baseball is meaningless as individual property. No 
boy can play baseball alone ; and if he furnishes his own ball, 
it is used as much by the seventeen other players in the game 
as it is by himself. From its very nature a baseball is com- 
munal property and must be furnished by the playground or 
the school where the play is to take place. 

Some of the supplies that should be furnished are the fol- 
lowing: reed, raffia, and worsted; baseballs, bases, and 
bats, indoor baseballs, tennis nets, rackets, and balls, tether 
balls, volley balls, basket balls, masks, mitts, protectors, jump- 
ing standards, tapes, stop watches, pistols, ring toss, and 
bean bags. 



112 Practical Conduct of Play 

As has been said, these supplies are fundamental to the 
success of the playground, far more so, to my mind, than 
swings, the giant stride, outdoor g5minasia, or other expensive 
pieces of equipment. These supplies are also the easiest 
furnished, as there is scarcely a school which cannot secure 
them by holding an entertainment or by taking up a collection 
among the children, or through the cooperation of some 
mothers' club or parents' association of the neighborhood. 
After the movement is established, these supplies should be 
furnished to the school children by the school board, and each 
school should receive a liberal supply at the beginning of the 
year, though they should be given out to the children only 
as the previous supplies are used up. 

The supplies for a playground system can nearly always be 
bought at wholesale rates at least, and perhaps at a special 
reduction from them. The bids should be secured as early 
as possible and the supplies for the season purchased at one 
time. Sometimes these supplies can be ordered from local 
dealers who will deliver them to the different grounds as they 
are needed, but this makes it difhcult to keep account of them. 
Probably the most satisfactory way is to deliver a certain 
quantity to each playground so that each may have supplies 
for a month or two in advance, and to store the rest, if there is 
some suitable place, sending them around as they are needed. 

The care of supplies is often one of the great problems of 
the playground, and one which requires constant watch- 
fulness. The playground building should be so arranged 
that all supplies may easily be secured for use, and so that 
the director can tell at a glance whether or not they have 
been returned. It is expensive at best to furnish children 
with baseballs, volley balls, basket balls, and the like, and 



The Field House 113 

for every reason great care should be taken of them. 
I have known a good many playgrounds where there 
were no safe places of storage, and as the playground house 
was open, the children could go at any time and help them- 
selves to baseballs, volley balls, or anything else that they 
might care to use. Under such circumstances it is impos- 
sible to keep track of the equipment, and in most neighbor- 
hoods the supply will soon have to be renewed. This is very 
objectionable, not only because of the loss of supplies, 
but even more because it teaches the children to steal. The 
playground has no right to place temptation in the way 
of children. Not only should tempting supplies be kept 
under lock and key, but experience has proved that buildings 
which are to hold them, if on an isolated playground, must be 
strongly made, else they are likely to be broken into during 
the night or at some other time when the playground is not in 
use. 

Toilets. — Toilets are a source of annoyance everywhere, 
and may be also a source of physical and moral danger. 
The boys' toilet should always be at some distance from 
the girls' toilet and on the opposite side of the building 
if possible. It is difficult to keep these toilets in a sanitary 
condition and free from objectionable writing and pictures. 
But this difhculty is greater in the beginning' than it is after 
the playground is well under way and the children begin to 
feel pride in it. These toilets should always be locked up at 
night, if they are in a playground which is not fenced. 

Lockers. — The playground house is in a way a sort of 
athletic clubhouse for the children of the playground. Ath- 
letic clubs for adults usually furnish members with lockers in 
which they can put their business clothes, and where they 



114 Practical Conduct of Play 

may keep their athletic shoes, tennis rackets, golf sticks, or 
whatever other material they wish ; and the field house, if 
possible, should have such places of storage for the children's 
coats and everyday shoes, and for their tennis or ball shoes, 
catching mitts, or anything else that they may wish to use 
on the playground. The field houses in Chicago are very 
generously supplied with lockers of this type, and a number 
in Boston, also, have these conveniences for storing skates, 
shoes, and the like. 

Shower Baths. — Since the great classic study of Mosso on 
fatigue, it has generally been recognized that this phenomenon 
is chiefly due to the poisoning of the system by the by-products 
of exercise, and that if these by-products can be removed, fa- 
tigue does not ensue. It is also recognized that these products 
which are thrown out upon the skin through the sweat glands 
during exercise may be reabsorbed into the system if not 
washed off soon afterwards, so that a person who bathes after 
exercise feels much fresher than the one who does not. In all 
athletic clubs and gymnasiums, shower baths are furnished. 
This is not only necessary for the sake of health and refresh- 
ment, but it also removes the objectionable odor from under- 
clothing full of perspiration. Some bathing facilities should 
always be furnished in connection with every playground, if 
the bath house is only a canvas wall around a catch basin. 

An Office. — The playground director has certain reports 
and inventories to make out and programs to outline. There 
are rainy spells when little can be done in the open, and 
it is very desirable, for these and other reasons, that there 
should be an office for the director. Such an office often fur- 
nishes an opportunity for consummations with teams or other 
groups, which may be the determining factor in securing the 



The Field House 115 

cooperation of the children and in making the spirit of the 
ground. 

The Playground Headquarters. — In order to administer a 
system, the supervisor also must, of course, have an office and 
a stenographer, and files in which to keep records of play- 
grounds and directors, applicants for positions, and such 
material. There should be on file at headquarters a plan 
of each playground in the city, showing its equipment ; also 
a plan of the system as a whole and of prospective enlarge- 
ments. There should be itemized accounts of all the money 
received and expended files of important letters, copies of all 
the instructions sent out to playground directors; sample 
programs of tournaments, entertainments, banquets ; a scrap 
book of newspaper clippings; a photograph album con- 
taining pictures of all playgrounds, buildings, and activities. 
If it is possible, it is a good thing to have also an office 
where the Playground Commission or Board, or the com- 
mittee of the School Board in charge, may have its meet- 
ings. It is not necessary that this headquarters should be 
in one of the field houses, but that is a good place for it if 
there is a field house that is properly located and equipped. 

A PAVILION 

Most playgrounds are at the present time unshaded, and 
•the weather is apt to be hot during a part of the summer. 
Many of the folk dances cannot well be given unless there is a 
floor upon which they can be danced, and some of the kinder- 
garten games are also very much better played upon a floor. 
Sudden showers may drive the children to shelter at almost 
any time, and it is desirable that there should be a suitable 
place at hand. This, in its simplest form, may be a mere 



ii6 Practical Conduct of Play 

pavilion with open sides, serving both as a shelter from sun 
and rain and as a floor for dancing. 

THE FIELD HOUSES OF CHICAGO 

Thus far I have spoken of the playground building, or field 
house, in its simplest terms, as one of those elements which 
seem to be necessary to the conduct of the municipal play- 
ground. In Chicago, however, they have gone very much 
farther, and erected buildings which are the wonder and admi- 
ration of nearly every one who has seen them. The first of 
these buildings was erected in 1905, and cost $70,000 ; the last 
completed is in Fuller Park and cost $3 1 8,000. They are prac- 
tically Y.M. and Y.W.C.A. buildings, without residence rooms, 
erected in the playground. The buildings in Chicago are, 
with a few exceptions, made of concrete with mottled-tile 
roofs. They were all designed by Daniel Burnham of Chicago, 
and are, it seems to me, the handsomest buildings in Chicago. 
Each of them contains two gymnasiums, one for the girls and 
one for the boys, abundant lockers for clothing, an auditorium 
that seats from four hundred to a thousand people, but which 
is used during a large part of the time as a dance hall, four 
club rooms (in the older buildings), a branch of the public 
library, and a small restaurant. 

It is evident that these field houses have gone far beyond 
the original idea of a building to be used in connection with 
the playground for the storage of supplies, and have become 
an end in themselves. In fact, it would be difficult to say in 
Chicago which is the tail and which is the dog, for the activities 
are indoors from the first of November to the first of May, and 
outdoors from May to November. The field house furnishes 
an opportunity to carry on the work throughout the year. 



The Field House 117 

The gymnasiums are fairly well used in the afternoon, and 
there are a large number of dances in the auditorium in the 
evening. The libraries are nearly always full, and there has 
been a considerable use of the restaurants ; but, on the whole, 
it does not seem as though the use of the field houses in Chi- 
cago has justified the enormous expense which they represent. 
One reason for this is undoubtedly that, until two years ago, 
there was no one in charge and no attempt was made to 
organize their use. Two years ago field house directors were 
appointed. Their work is similar to that of Y.M.C.A. 
secretaries, or head workers in settlements, and their business 
is to see that all the facilities of the field house and play- 
ground are used and used properly. But the field houses are 
in the parks and in sections which are not crowded, for the 
most part, so that they are at a considerable distance from 
any large population. There is no natural organization of the 
people around them. There are eleven such field houses in 
the South Park System, some five or six completed in the West 
Park System, and four or five in the Lincoln Park System. 
There are field houses in the Municipal System of Chicago 
also, but these are of much simpler type. 

FIELD HOUSES IN PHILADELPHIA 

During the last three years five field houses similar to those 
in Chicago have been erected in Philadelphia. These, for the 
most part, are in more crowded sections than in Chicago, and 
their use seems to be considerably greater. I believe that one 
reason for this larger use is that in the Chicago field houses 
there are often ten or fifteen attendants and two play direc- 
tors, while in Philadelphia there are from five to ten play 
directors and only three or four attendants. 



Ii8 Practical Conduct of Play 



THE SCHOOL BUILDING AS A FIELD HOUSE 

As has been said, it is necessary that the playground should 
have connected with it a place for the storage of supplies, for 
toilets, for shelter from inclement weather, and for indoor 
exercise and entertainments during the cold weather. But 
any modern schoolhouse furnishes all of these facilities as 
well as does the field house. In Gary, each of the new schools 
contains two gymnasiums, one or two swimming pools, a 
large auditorium, a branch of the public library, and a public 
restaurant, and it also has all kinds of facilities for manual 
training and domestic economy ; so that it is more complete 
in play facilities furnished, than the Chicago field house. 
Nearly all our new high schools have fine gymnasiums and 
auditoriums, and many of them have swimming pools as 
well. There often are also rooms furnished with Multhrop 
or other movable desks, so that the floor may be cleared and 
used for dancing or any other public purpose. Many of our 
new elementary schools, also, have similar facilities, and the 
kindergarten rooms are always equipped with movable seats 
and available for entertainments and play. The schools are 
nearly all located in the densely settled parts of the city and 
have their own clientele. Children are accustomed to go to 
them, and the interest of the community is gathered around 
them on account of the children. It is an open question how 
far cities can afford to let their school buildings stand idle at 
night, while they build elaborate structures in their parks or 
elsewhere to furnish practically the same facilities that the 
schools already have. It is a notable fact that in Chicago, 
at least, the field houses, which are furnished with every 
facility and are beautiful in every detail, have a far smaller 



The Field House 119 

attendance than do the evening centers in the school buildings 
of New York and Boston, while the expense of maintenance 
is several times as great. Hence we must conclude that while 
the simple playground building, which will furnish storage 
and toilets and showers, and be an adjunct to the playground 
itself, is absolutely essential to the open-air playground, it is 
a moot question in any city with a modern school system how 
far the elaborate field house which becomes an end in itself 
is worth while. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE ORGANIZER OF PLAY 

There are many who think that direction and play are 
irreconcilable, that the fact of an activity's being directed 
must prevent it from being play. People who have this 
opinion seem to conceive of the relation of play leader to 
players as similar to that of a foreman over a gang of workmen. 
They seem to think the director stands up on a real or imagi- 
nary platform and says to one group of children, " You go over 
there and play Ring around the Rosy " ; to another group, 
" You boys go over there and play leap frog." If we can 
imagine such a playground director, we must imagine not 
only a playground without play, but also a playground without 
children, unless they are there to annoy the director, for 
children do not come to playgrounds to do what they do not 
wish to do. If the playground does not interest them, they 
stay away. Such play direction is absolutely impossible. 
For this reason, "director" is not a good name for the person 
in charge of a playground. Play leader and play organizer 
are both better terms. 

This is the way the " direction " of play usually works 
out. Suppose the teacher is accustomed to have ring games 
for the small children at ten o'clock in the morning; Mary 
Jones wants to dig in the sand instead, but the teacher compels 
her to play. The probabilities are that Mary will be " work- 
ing " at ring games for only a few minutes before she catches 



The Organizer of Play 1 2 1 

the spirit from the others. Take the German play afternoon 
where attendance is compelled. I believe these play after- 
noons are over-mechanized in Germany, and that they do not 
have as much of the spirit of play as they should have ; but 
this seems to be due chiefly to the gymnastic ideals of the 
Turners, who are leading the movement, and not to any 
necessity of the case. If in any public school the principal 
should say, " Instead of having the arithmetic or geography 
this afternoon, we will go out into the yard and play games," 
the children would not enjoy the games any the less because 
they took the place of their school work. 

In actual fact, it is nearly always found that the personality 
of the director is the largest element in getting the attendance 
of the children on the playground. The great difficulty in the 
beginning is that the children wish to join the games in which 
the director is playing and will constantly forsake their own 
games for this purpose. 

In a congested playground, direction is often the only 
condition of freedom, because otherwise the older and stronger 
children monopohze the apparatus and play space. More- 
over, street rowdies and corner loafers are Hkely to make the 
playgrounds their headquarters, determining its spirit and the 
sort of activities that go on there. The great difficulty with 
the undirected playground is that it is not really undirected 
but is controlled by the unsocial elements of the community. 
Careful parents who observe this condition in any playground 
will not allow their children to come, and a competent person 
in charge is a sine qua non for the attendance of the children 
from the better grade of families. A playground that is un- 
supervised will often be the worst influence for children there 
is in the neighborhood, and the source of much delinquency. 



122 Practical Conduct of Play 



THE WORK OF THE PLAYGROUND DIRECTOR 

There are many who think of a playground position as a 
sinecure. I suppose nearly every playground director has 
had facetious remarks made to him in regard to his easy 
method of earning a living. The public in general has often 
expected little of him, and only too frequently he has expected 
little of himself; but the director who sees the significance 
of what he is doing and undertakes conscientiously to do his 
best does not find that he has much time to waste during the 
day, or much energy left over when the day is finished. 

Discipline. — The general public has always conceived of 
the playground director as a sort of amateur policeman placed 
on the ground to keep order, to prevent apparatus from being 
broken, to stop quarrels and improper language and conduct, 
to prevent the stealing of equipment, and in general to be a 
sort of negative force repressing the unruly side of child and 
community life. It is entirely necessary that all of these 
things shall be done. The playground which is unregulated 
and which becomes the meeting ground of older boys and 
girls and the resort of corner gangs and street loafers will 
undoubtedly become the most vicious influence for children 
in any community. It also soon gets almost entirely into 
the hands of a few older children who use it to the exclusion 
of the smaller ones. But the playground does not exist for 
the sake of discipline any more than the school does. 

Teaching of Games and Activities. — The playground is 
primarily a place for play, and its success is largely determined 
by the sort of play that goes on there. Training in these 
natural occupations of childhood is perhaps the most funda- 
mental training which can be given to children ; for success 



The Organizer of Play 123 

in these activities means that the children are passing normally 
through the physical motor stage which early childhood repre- 
sents, that they are developing physically and acquiring motor 
skill. If the playground is really successful, then the boys 
are becoming daily more skillful in baseball, basket ball, 
volley ball, tennis, and all the common forms of athletics, and 
the girls are also becoming skillful in these games and in raffia 
work and basketry, folk dancing, and other activities. The 
success of the playground director as a teacher is measured by 
the proficiency of his pupils in the things undertaken, in 
exactly the same way that the success of a teacher in the school 
is measured by the proficiency of her pupils in the school 
subjects. In order that the play leader may be a successful 
teacher, two things are essential ; first, that he himself shall 
have the spirit of play, and second, that he shall himself be a 
good sportsman and know how to impress his ideals upon the 
children. 

The spirit of play is the spirit of childhood and it is also 
essentially the vivacity and the joy of life. It is this spirit 
which makes much of the personal charm and the effectiveness 
of the individual in social relationships. I have had, in 
different playgrounds of which I have had charge, directors 
who were able to make work out of any sort of activity. If 
you set them to teaching a ring game, you would find all the 
children going around Hke blocks of wood without there being 
a particle of play in it for anybody. On the other hand, I have 
had directors who could make play out of any kind of activity. 
It is notable how much more playful children are, in the ring 
games for instance, in certain playgrounds, than they are in 
others. This is an almost perfect measure of the play spirit 
of the director in charge. 



124 Practical Conduct of Play 

We cannot too often recall that play is an activity which 
represents the past of the race, and that it is no more physical 
than it is emotional or social. The ethics of play is the nat- 
ural ethics of childhood and play is probably the easiest way of 
initiating the child into moral conduct. One of the most 
necessary qualifications that any play director can have is the 
spirit of sportsmanship. He must know, first of all, in what 
sportsmanship consists, in order that he may be able to in- 
struct the children, and he must always be a good sportsman 
and set an example worthy for the children to follow. Perhaps 
this has been the supreme advantage which the English 
master has had in the organization of play in the preparatory 
and public schools of England. Thus far our schools in 
general are giving very inadequate training in sportsman- 
ship. 

The Director as an Ideal. — A director of the right kind 
naturally tends to become the hero or heroine of the children. 
He is usually more skillful than they in the activities of the 
playground, and if he has a social spirit, he is generally popu- 
lar. The reason that the street play of the children is apt to 
be demoralizing is that they take as their models the street 
loafers and leaders of gangs whose language and conduct 
are far from being good examples. A city could well afford 
to pay good salaries to playground directors of the right 
kind merely to set standards of conduct and language for 
the children to follow. The right type of play director, who 
is or should be champion in all of the activities in which the 
children are most interested, tends naturally to become their 
ideal. This is one reason why it is so necessary that the play 
director should be an expert in the activities of the playground. 
He should be an authority on the rules of the games, dances, 



The Organizer of Play 125 

and athletics, and so far as possible he should be an expert 
in all the other activities as well. 

Organizing Play. — There has always been the feeling on the 
part of many that the director would either over-mechanize 
play or that he would take away all the initiative of children, 
and that the greatest educational value of play would thereby 
be lost. But those who speak in this way have not studied 
conditions. What actually happens in a successful playground 
is something like this. The play organizer sees Johnnie Smith 
in the morning and says to him, " Johnnie, why don't you 
organize a baseball team out of the boys in your block, or 
your class in school? We are arranging a tournament in 
baseball, and I should like you to get up a team that can come 
into the League. You get all your boys together and come 
over here at eleven o'clock and we will talk it over." This 
play is no less free because it is put into a tournament and 
made exciting than it would have been if it had been the list- 
less, quarrelsome kind of game that ordinarily takes place on 
the vacant lots. Perhaps, on the other hand, there is a group 
of boys standing around and one of them says, "What shall 
we play ? " The teacher suggests pullaway, and very likely 
falls into the game with the boys. The play is no less free on 
this account. A group of children always depend on some 
one for a suggestion as to what they are to play. 

Securing Cooperation. — One of the most fundamental 
requirements of the playground director is that he shall be a 
person who can get the children to work with him, who can 
organize them into teams and groups for various purposes, 
and make the playground morally self-supporting, — a place 
where children have no wish to get into disorder. Not only 
must he be able to secure this cooperation from the children, 



126 Practical Conduct of Play 

but if he is to be highly successful he must secure it from 
the parents also. This requires a very high grade of ability, 
but some approximation to it is possible for almost any 
one. 

Promoting Friendship. — Friendship is essential to play 
and there can be no good play without it. We may always 
take the spirit of friendship among the children as an evi- 
dence that play has been going on, and vice versa, a spirit of 
enmity among them always indicates a condition where play 
will be very difficult. It is the mixing in this country of 
races and peoples with the hereditary hatreds and antagonisms 
which have grown out of European history that has made one 
of our most serious play problems. Children will go a long 
distance to play with children whom they like, even when 
there is no equipment to play with, but they will not go across 
the road to play with children whom they dislike, even if those 
children have every facility for play. At all our summer 
resorts, also, the people who are there are at least half of the 
resort, and it is the social, far more than the scenic, attractions 
which induce people to return year after year to the same 
place. This is perhaps the main reason why the municipal 
playgrounds have not been altogether successful in securing 
attendance ; the children have come from various quarters, 
where they have had no previous association with each other, 
and the activities have in general been very insufficiently 
organized. If a playground is to have a large and continued 
attendance, it is absolutely necessary that it develop a spirit 
of friendhness among the children, for that spirit of friendHness 
will have more to do with the attendance than all the equip- 
ment that can be put into the ground. This may seem Hke 
a very large requirement to place upon a playground director, 



The Organizer of Play 127 

but it is not really so ideal and abstract and impossible as it 
may seem. To put it concretely, it means that there shall be 
an abundance of good play in which the children take part, 
that, so far as possible, social groupings of friendly children 
in games and various activities shall be effected, and that 
these groups shall be kept together to a considerable extent. 
All tournaments and contests with other grounds tend also to 
emphasize and strengthen the loyalty and friendliness of 
children on the home ground. This social requirement has 
not thus far been sufficiently appreciated on the part of play- 
ground directors and supervisors, although we are all aware 
of it so far as we ourselves are concerned. 

THE ORGANIZATION OF PLAY AS A PROFESSION 

Number of Positions. — Before any one should consider 
preparation for a playground position or seek employment in 
play activities, he should naturally inquire, ^^ What are the 
probabilities of my securing a position, and will the remunera- 
tion compensate me for the training which will be necessary? " 
This a natural and proper question. There were employed 
in the playgrounds of the United States during the year 1913, 
6318 workers, of whom 774 were employed for the year. The 
numbers, both of permanent and summer workers, are in- 
creasing at the rate of about twenty per cent a year. Besides 
the playground positions there is at present so great a de- 
mand for physical trainers in connection with city school sys- 
tems, settlements, camps, institutional churches, Y.M. and 
Y.W.C.A.'s, and boys' and girls' clubs, that those who are 
adequately trained usually secure positions some time before 
their graduation, at salaries considerably higher than those 
of regular teachers. The number of schools of physical 



128 Practical Conduct of Play 

training is increasing rapidly, but all of these schools together 
do not seem to be able to keep pace with the rapid develop- 
ment of physical training throughout the country. 

Still these numbers are a mere bagatelle compared with 
the numbers that will be required if certain pedagogical 
movements that now loom large on the horizon should become 
general. Perhaps there is no other city in the country that is 
attracting so much attention in pedagogical circles as Gary, 
Indiana, where Superintendent William Wirt has developed 
a system new in nearly every detail and built very closely 
upon the normal needs of children. It is a departmental 
system from bottom to top, and the children change class- 
rooms at the end of each period. All of the teachers are spe- 
cialists, and nearly one quarter of them are physical trainers. 
The children in the first six grades have two hours of play 
every day, and those from the sixth to the eleventh grade 
one hour. The significance of this appears in the fact that 
school superintendents, normal school presidents, and pro- 
fessors of pedagogy from all over the country have been visit- 
ing Gary in such large numbers during the last four or five 
years that it has been necessary to set aside certain weeks 
for visitors, during which regular lecturers and guides to the 
system are employed, in order to avoid the constant dis- 
turbance of classes and interference with the work of princi- 
pals and teachers. During the last year or two a considerable 
number of cities have introduced the Gary plan in a modified 
form. If this system should go into effect in all our cities, 
it would take at least fifty thousand playground directors, 
and if it were considered applicable to rural schools, it would 
take at least a hundred thousand more teachers with some 
preparation in the organization of play. 



The Organizer of Play 129 

The number of positions which I have quoted from The 
Playground^ however, does not include, in general, teachers 
who are devoting their time to the organization of play in 
connection with a regular school system, and this is the field 
in which growth is likely to be most rapid. 

It will be noted, however, that in the figures given there are 
only 774 positions which are for the entire year. A person 
cannot afford to take a lengthy course of training to prepare 
himself for a summer position, but a brief course, perhaps, 
may be worth while, even for work during the summer. 

The Salary. — If a person prepares himself for a position in 
the playgrounds, what salary may he expect to receive? 
At the present time the people who have all-the-year-around 
positions are probably receiving on the average a little more 
than the average teacher's salary, which is true of physical 
trainers the country over. During the next few years, while 
there is still a scarcity of those who are adequately prepared, 
it is probable that this will be true. There can be no assurance 
that a person will get a position in the playgrounds, but it is 
almost sure that any competent physical trainer will get a 
position, either in the playgrounds or in some allied line of 
activity, such as the settlements, institutional churches, 
Y.M. or Y.W.C.A.'s, and in any of these institutions, his play 
training will be a real preparation. 

Residence. — In the city of Los Angeles they furnish a 
house on every playground for the director and his family. 
This is separated from the remainder of the playground by a 
picket fence, but is within the inclosure. In some of the 
field houses in Pittsburgh, also, there is a residence for the 
director. The playground with its social center is a sort of 
pubHc settlement, and it is highly desirable that the director 



130 Practical Conduct of Play 

should live in the neighborhood, if possible, and become a part 
of the community. In fact, it is almost impossible that the 
playground should be that sort of social force, that melting 
pot of the races, which it ought to be unless the director 
becomes a part of the community. Wherever it is possible, 
then, he should either live on the playground or in its im- 
mediate vicinity. 

The Time of Service. — There are now nearly ten summer 
playground positions to one position which lasts during the 
entire year. The summer work usually lasts for eight or nine 
weeks, thus leaving a week vacant at the beginning and an- 
other at the end of the summer, in order that the directors, 
who are usually regular teachers during the school year, 
may have a brief vacation. 

The hours of service on the playgrounds vary greatly in 
dififerent places, but probably average six or seven per day, 
though in New York they are only four and a half, and in the 
municipal playgrounds of Chicago they are twelve. Probably 
six or seven hours should be the maximum playground service, 
because the work required, if conscientiously performed, is 
very strenuous. During the school year, the park playgrounds 
of Chicago open at three o'clock and close at ten. During 
the summer, the hours are from nine in the morning until ten 
at night. But the period of duty for any one teacher is about 
six hours a day in both cases. 

On the school grounds the time of service during the school 
year is usually from the close of school until dark, thus ranging 
from one hour to an hour and a half a day during the fall, 
and from two hours to two and a half during the spring, with 
perhaps Saturday forenoon or all day Saturday also. 

At the social centers, the hours are generally from half 



The Organizer of Play 131 

past seven until ten, with occasional dances and entertain- 
ments which may last until eleven or twelve. Thus if the 
service after school and on Saturdays is combined with service 
in the social center, it makes a four- or five-hour day for these 
workers. 

All over the country the observance of Sunday is becoming 
less strict than it was a few years ago, and baseball, tennis, 
golf, and similar games are coming, more and more, to be 
played then. This, of course, is much more common on the 
continent of Europe than it is here ; indeed, nearly all the 
big athletic events and the principal games in Germany, and 
perhaps in most of the countries of Europe, take place on 
Sunday afternoon. There are probably from five to ten per 
cent of the playgrounds of this country that are now kept 
open on Sunday, and they often have their largest attendance 
at that time. These have been, however, until recently, 
exclusively the municipal playgrounds ; but during this past 
year the school playgrounds of Gary have been thrown open 
on Sunday afternoons and evenings, and it seems Hkely that 
this custom is destined to grow. The Massachusetts Civic 
League is devoting a large part of its energy to the promotion 
of Sunday baseball, and we must reahze that for those who 
are working six days a week the only opportunity for play 
comes in the evenings or on Sunday. It is also evident that 
many of our playgrounds are located in sections where they 
are surrounded by Jewish people whose Sabbath is on Satur- 
day and who wish to play on Sunday more than at any other 
time. Many other playgrounds are surrounded by recent 
immigrants, who are accustomed to the Continental Sabbath 
and who of course wish to have their games and athletics 
on Sunday. It does not seem as though the playgrounds 



132 Practical Conduct of Play 

should be open on Sunday morning where they are likely 
to interfere with the church services, but it is possible that 
most of our playgrounds ought to be opened on Sunday 
afternoon. 

This ought not to mean seven days' service for the director, 
however ; there ought always to be some provision to give 
him at least one day off. During the early days, in Chicago, 
special directors were employed for Sunday. 

Where the directors are employed for the entire year, they 
usually have a two weeks' vacation on full pay at some time 
during the year, but those whose employment is only for the 
summer generally have no vacation. 

Health. — ^' Man shall not live by bread alone," nor must 
one who prepares for a playground position be moved only by 
the idea of financial recompense. To a person who is fond of 
outdoor life and activities, the playground gives an opportu- 
nity for this enjoyment, and in addition the probabiHty of 
the maintenance of as vigorous health as can be expected in 
connection with any line of work. 

Opportunity for Service. — It is often a good thing for a 
playground system if its funds are inadequate in the beginning, 
so that local workers go in at first without pay, or at least on a 
low salary, because this is apt to bring out those who are 
genuinely interested and who are wilHng to receive part of 
their recompense in a sense of service. This social spirit is 
very necessary for the success of a playground worker, and 
the joy of service should be his highest reward. 

Comradeship. — Probably the playground is the most 
democratic place in the world. There is no distinction of 
races or classes, of rich or poor, of high or low, Jew or Gen- 
tile, Catholic or Protestant. All mingle together on equal 



The Organizer of Play 133 

footing, and each is known and praised for his abihty to do 
the things that are to be done. Organized play is an effi- 
cient means for the development of that social spirit and 
sense of comradeship, of that spirit of brotherHness, which 
seems to be the keynote of the age that is coming in. This 
sense of comradeship in play should always be one of the re- 
wards of the playground director. 

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE DIRECTOR 

Technical Training. — In general, it may be said that 
the director must be able to conduct all of the activities and 
manage all of the equipment and apparatus of the playground. 
He must know the games of the children, the folk dances, the 
athletics, and he should know, also, something of dramatics, 
story-telHng, pageantry, camping, conducting excursions, gar- 
dening, and industrial work ; especially does he need to be 
expert in the organization of teams and groups of children, 
and in securing the cooperation of the children and the com- 
munity in making the playground a success. 

In some of the playgrounds special teachers of folk dancing, 
story-telHng, dramatics, gardening, industrial work, and music 
are employed. These specialists usually perform two func- 
tions : first, the giving of special instruction to teachers along 
the line of their own work; and second, the supervising of 
this work in the several playgrounds. These specialists are re- 
quired because the present play directors are so inadequately 
trained, but as time goes on and the workers themselves are 
better prepared, it is likely that the specialists will be largely 
dispensed with, in the smaller systems at least. 

There are also certain problems of hygiene which are found 
in all playgrounds and which require the constant attention 



134 Practical Conduct of Play 

of the director. The swimming pool, if there is one, and the 
sand bin must be kept in a sanitary condition. He must see 
that the toilets are kept clean, and that the children with 
contagious skin and eye diseases are sent home, as well as 
children who have vermin in their hair. 

There are often cases of injury in connection with the games 
and the use of the apparatus which are likely to require some 
knowledge of first aid. There should always be some anti- 
septic wash available, and court plaster for bruises, cuts, and 
sprains; but the director should avoid treating any serious 
injuries such as broken bones, and, in general, it is not best for 
him to attempt to make a medical examination to determine 
whether or not the children are in condition for the more 
strenuous contests. This requires much technical skill, and 
regular doctors of experience should be summoned for this 
purpose. Of ttimes young doctors will give a very low rate, or 
perhaps contribute their services to the playground for the 
sake of the cause. 

Physique. — I suppose every playground supervisor has 
had applications, during the early days at least, for positions 
from people who gave as their special qualification for a 
playground position that they were unable to do anything 
else, having been incapacitated by service in the army or by 
disease. However, no one who has ever had any experience 
with playground activities would regard incapacity for doing 
other things as a very good recommendation for a playground 
job. A person who goes into a playground and really plays 
with the children and puts his soul into it will find the exercise 
exceedingly strenuous. I have myself sawed wood, pitched 
hay, and worked on the railroad, but I have never found 
anything else quite so strenuous physically as was the play- 



The Organizer of Play 135 

ground position which I held during the first year the play- 
grounds were opened in New York City. 

Age. — Teachers in the declining years of life have often 
come to me and said they contemplated taking a course in 
preparation for a playground position, saying they needed 
to get outdoors, and they thought that this would be just 
the thing for them. It does not seem likely, however, that 
any person who has lived a sedentary life in the school- 
room until he is fifty or more years of age will be able after 
that to take up and stand the strain of an occupation so 
vigorous as the direction of a playground. In general, 
the playground director ought at least to begin young. If 
he has been accustomed to a life of physical activity from 
early years, he probably may continue it beyond middle life, 
and perhaps to old age, but it will be almost impossible for 
him to take up such a life after having led an inactive one until 
the years of decline have begun. 

Refinement. — There are few other places where people 
are drawn so close to one another as they are when they 
play together. Perhaps there is no other person who is so 
largely copied by the children as the popular playground 
director. He or she ought, consequently, to be a person of 
refinement first of all, and a worthy model as a man or a 
woman. 

General Education. — In most systems the director is 
required to be at least a high school graduate ; in some, college 
graduation or graduation from a normal school of physical 
training is practically insisted upon. I have known play- 
ground directors whose ordinary conversation was so ungram- 
matical and lacking in culture that it did not seem appropriate 
that they should have charge of the activities of children. 



136 Practical Conduct of Play 

Some standard of general education is necessary in order to 
keep up the grade of the work. 

Love for Children. — What should be the attitude main- 
tained by the teacher toward the children? We often hear 
the expression " Familiarity breeds contempt. '' Whenever I 
hear this expression, I always feel like completing it by its 
implied condition. Familiarity leads to contempt, if you are 
contemptible. " No king is a hero to his valet de chambre," 
say the French. No, not if his heroism consists in his clothes ; 
but surely Napoleon would have been no less a hero to his 
valet than to others, if the soul of his valet were large enough 
to conceive of heroism. We may make heroes of very un- 
heroic material, if we put them so far away that we never get a 
real sight of them, but a really great person never suffers from a 
nearer view, provided we have any power of vision in ourselves. 
Perhaps the saying was intended to mean that the permitting 
of disrespectful treatment leads to contempt. There can be 
no doubt that any one who has to do with children must 
demand of them respectful treatment as the fundamental 
condition of esteem and influence. The director cannot 
allow that kind of familiarity which would lead a child 
to steal his cap and throw it about or to trip him up, 
as I have seen done ; but there is no danger of the director's 
being too friendly. Friendliness is an absolutely essential 
condition of good discipline and social training in the play- 
ground. 

The relationships of the playground are much more intimate 
than those of the school, and the success of the director in 
his or her work will be largely determined by his or her attitude 
toward the children themselves. No person who does not 
love children should ever accept a playground position. 



The Organizer of Play 137 

Interest in Children. — The laws of personal popularity 
are the same on the playground as elsewhere. One may have 
an influence over just as many people as he is able to take an 
interest in. If he is able to know and call by name and 
enter sympathetically into the lives of only fifty people, his 
personal influence will be practically limited to fifty people. If 
he can be interested in five hundred people, his personal touch 
will be ten times as extensive, though it may lack proportion- 
ally in intensity. The social leader and the politician have 
mastered the arts of personal influence of the extensive kind. 
The politician calls you by name, he asks how your son John 
is, and whether Mary has fully recovered from the measles. 
He leads you to think that he takes a great personal interest 
in you and your affairs. I have gone through the offices of a 
hundred representatives at Washington in one week to find 
when I went back the next week that almost every man would 
call me by name. It has been a part of their training. It is 
exactly so with the playground director. He will have a 
direct influence over just as many children as he is able to 
take an interest in. Until you know a child's name he feels 
irresponsible for his conduct. The mere fact that you can 
call a boy John or Henry is a tie which is even more powerful 
in childhood than later. 

The senior class at Yale always takes a vote as to who is 
the most popular professor, and during the life of Dean Wright 
he was always chosen. It is said that in any city where they 
might chance to meet he could go up to any one of the twenty- 
five thousand men who went through Yale while he was 
there and call him by name. After I had been at Yale only 
part of a term myself, I was obliged to return home on account 
of a sprained ankle. I saw Dean Wright only to get an excuse 



133 Practical Conduct of Play 

for going home. When I returned the next year, he happened 
to be at the station. He came up to me and said, " How do 
you do, Mr. Curtis? Has your ankle recovered?" That 
sort of interest in people which enables a man to individualize 
them is the key to personal influence in society and politics, 
and no less in the playgrounds. It is the most fundamental 
thing in social and political success and in the effectiveness of 
one individual upon another. 

Respect for Children. — The playground is the most demo- 
cratic place on earth, and it is absolutely essential that the 
director should be a democrat. Many of our playgrounds 
are located in the midst of foreign settlements where they are 
surrounded by Jews or Italians or Greeks. No man can go 
into the playground and think of these foreign children as 
" Sheenies " or " Dagoes " and have any influence over them. 
We insist upon respect for our personality as the one condition 
upon which another may have a helpful influence over us. We 
object to being '' uplifted." Indeed I doubt whether there is 
any other attitude which has a greater moral value than the 
ability to see the good side of others and to show respect 
for it. This is the fundamental thing in the spirit of democ- 
racy which is coming in and which is so often spoken of as 
the keynote of the new age. This spirit discovers that 
people of different classes and conditions are not, after all, 
so different as we had supposed; that we all have many 
more things in common than we have points of difference ; 
and that we may find running through all classes and creeds 
a sense of comradeship which brings a new joy to life and 
also brings much of practical effectiveness along all lines of 
achievement. Perhaps there is no other person in the com- 
munity who needs quite so much as the play director to be a 



The Organizer of Play 139 

good ^' mixer," — to have this spirit of democracy. This 
is one of the reasons why a play position gives one such 
good training in the spirit of the coming age. 

WHO MAY BECOME PLAYGROUND DIRECTORS? 

Physical Trainers. — Should the playground director be a 
physical trainer ? In general, this question has been answered 
in this country in the affirmative ; in Germany and England, 
in the negative. We have seemed to take it for granted that 
play is always a physical activity and that the successful 
conduct of a playground requires that sort of training which is 
given in schools of physical education. However, it must 
be noted that a large number of the activities of any play- 
ground are not physical activities. Story-telling, dramatics, 
gardening, pageants, and the like, are not essentially physi- 
cal in their nature, nor do the schools of physical education 
give just the type of training which is required for the other 
activities of the playground. Probably the most fundamental 
requirement of the playground director is his ability to create 
a spirit of friendliness, to secure the cooperation of the children 
and the parents, to deal with the community as a social group, 
and to become the organizer of its leisure time. This is not a 
type of ability which is trained in most schools of physical 
education. The more common activities, however, in the 
playgrounds are of course games, folk dancing, and athletics, 
and these are essentially physical ; so we may say, at any rate, 
that physical training, or training in these activities, should be 
part of the preparation of the playground director; but he 
should also have a training in practical sociology, in psychology, 
in manual training, story-telling, dramatics, pageantry, and a 
number of other things. The tendency in this country thus 



140 Practical Conduct of Play 

far has been to put into our playgrounds, wherever we were 
able, competent physical directors, but in England it is the 
regular teacher who has charge of the play after school, and 
the same is true in Germany. Probably our best prepared 
teachers for playground positions at the present time are 
physical trainers, and yet in my own experience they have 
not always been the most successful in the actual conduct 
of play. The most successful director that I ever had 
was a kindergartner who had charge of all the children, 
big and little, sometimes as many as three or four hundred 
children at once. The next most successful was a social 
worker. 

The Regular Teachers. — Whether or not we employ 
physical directors to have charge of all-the-year-round play- 
grounds, it seems inevitable that the regular teachers in the 
schools are to have charge of most of the activities on the 
school grounds, unless it should happen that the departmental 
system, as followed in Gary, should be generally adopted 
throughout the country. Certainly there is an increasing 
tendency for the teachers to have charge of play during the 
recesses and after school. There are many, however, who 
question the wisdom of this. They say that the teacher who 
has been in the classroom during the day ought to be relieved 
entirely of strain after school hours, and that the taking on of 
any new activity is likely to cause a breakdown. This will 
undoubtedly be true for the teacher who does not love chil- 
dren and is a poor disciplinarian ; but for the child-lover who 
can control by the power of her personality, a play position 
after school may often be a life-saver. The master in the 
English preparatory and public schools has charge of the 
play of the children for about two hours a day, as a matter of 



The Organizer of Play 141 

course. I have never heard of a breakdown attributed to 
this cause. 

There is still more hesitancy on the part of the teachers, 
and still more question on the part of the school authorities, 
when it comes to the teacher's taking charge of a playground 
during the summer vacation ; but, again, I have seen a number 
of teachers who were nearly broken down by their work during 
the school year go into playgrounds in Washington, where the 
temperature was nearly a hundred in the shade during a large 
part of the summer, and build up steadily in health and 
physique. 

I doubt if a course at any summer school is likely to 
give more valuable training to the ordinary teacher than 
she will derive from a summer in a playground. The 
teacher in the classroom is not dealing with the real child, 
but with a Httle caged animal. In the playground she has 
the genuine child before her, for the child acts and thinks 
in terms of play, and the teacher who has forgotten how to 
play cannot speak the language of childhood or understand 
its thoughts. 

Teachers are especially subject to troubles that come from 
living indoors. About a third of all the breakdowns are due 
to " nerves " and for these the natural cure is to throw off 
the worry each day in some kind of spontaneous activity 
and to get an abundance of fresh air. Teachers are about 
twice as susceptible to tuberculosis on an average as other 
persons, and here again the open-air play is the best possible 
cure for the conditions which are producing the disease. The 
teacher in the playground gets into more intimate touch with 
the child than she is able to do in the schoolroom, and this 
new relationship is apt to bring about a more intimate kind 



142 Practical Conduct of Play 

of teaching and a pleasanter relationship with the children 
in the school as well as on the playground. 

Kindergartners. — Kindergartners already have excellent 
training for the work with little children, and if the kinder- 
garten be some day restored to the open air, as was the pur- 
pose of its founder, we shall have trained play directors for 
the little children ready for this section. The kindergarten 
encourages a spirit of play and physical activity and a sym- . 
pathetic insight into child nature which ofttimes makes the 
kindergartner an admirable director for the play of the older 
as well as the younger children. 

Social Workers. — Perhaps there is no place where there is 
a greater opportunity for personal influence than in the 
playgrounds. The child is himself there and his nature is 
open to suggestions to which it seems to be hermetically sealed 
while he is in the classroom. Example is more contagious 
there than anywhere else. The play movement in the United 
States has been from the beginning fundamentally a social 
rather than a physical movement, and it has been chiefly for 
social reasons that it has been promoted. The fundamental 
problem of the playgrounds is always a problem of social 
organization and of securing the cooperation of the children 
and parents of the community in common undertakings, such 
as athletics, folk dancing, games, and other activities. In 
many ways the social worker who already has the spirit of 
play and some experience with games and athletics makes an 
admirable organizer of play. The one pecuHar temptation 
to which the playground director is subject is loafing. There 
does not seem to be much that is definite for him to do, and 
the general public never expects him to be much more than a 
pohceman. It is always easier to sit about and talk than it is 



The Organizer of Play 143 

to organize activities. It is difficult for a supervisor who has 
a number of grounds to look after and who must also be 
business man, promoter, and financial agent, as is often neces- 
sary, to give close supervision to individual grounds ; and for 
all these reasons it is essential that the play director be one 
who will run on his own steam from a genuine interest in 
the welfare of the children and a desire to promote it. 

Moreover, the playground systems all over the country are 
rapidly becoming all-the-year-round systems, which means 
that the municipal playgrounds are acquiring field houses 
and that the schools are becoming social centers. Wherever 
a system has a field house or a social center, the work required 
in connection with these is practically the same as that re- 
quired in settlements, and the social worker is probably the 
one person who is best prepared to have charge of at least a 
part of these activities. 

College Graduates with Leisure. — In many ways a play- 
ground position should appeal to young ladies who have just 
graduated from college and who are not compelled to make a 
Hving but who wish to make their lives count for something. 
The refinement and general education which they have gained 
will count for as much in the playground as they possibly can 
anywhere else. Moreover, if they have through their own 
social position, or in the course of their training, acquired a 
certain snobbishness or sense of superiority, the playground 
is the best place in the world to cure them of it and to inspire 
that democratic spirit which is probably the best possible 
preparation for success in society or in the general social 
movements. The playground is also a place where they may 
be out of doors and where they may build up physically 
and become strong and well. Many of the play positions 



144 Practical Conduct of Play 

enforce long vacations which can ill be afforded by workers 
who are entirely dependent upon themselves, but which would 
probably appeal to young women whose livelihood is assured. 
It has seemed almost essential to efficiency in this country 
that the playground director should have a regular course of 
training, but probably the most efffcient directors of play that 
there are anywhere are the masters in the preparatory and 
public schools of England. These men have had no training 
but they have played games from childhood and have a real 
love for play. After the young people have had organized 
play in the playgrounds for a few years, it will be less necessary 
to teach games, athletics, and dances to those who are to have 
charge of playgrounds, and perhaps these young women re- 
cently out of college, who have had an abundance of play 
and games and dancing during their school life and a course or 
two in theory in college, may really be very well fitted to be- 
come competent leaders of the play of children. In any case, 
they represent the type of persons who ought to be directors of 
playgrounds. To employ an uncultured person who has risen 
from the ranks in the neighborhood in which the playground 
is located is to deprive the children of a great opportunity to 
gain refinement through the imitation of a cultured person. 

WHO IS TO ORGANIZE PLAY IN THE COUNTRY? 

The Rural Teacher. — If play is to be organized in the one- 
room rural school, it must in general be organized by the teacher 
herself, and to a certain extent this is already being done. 
The children themselves expect it. 

The Principal of the Consolidated School. — The one-room 
rural schools of the country are slowly giving place to township 
or consolidated schools, and in a considerable number of 



The Organizer of Play 145 

states special state aid is being given to accelerate this proc- 
ess. The decreasing population in the country sections and 
the smaller size of country families is leaving once populous 
district schools with only five or ten pupils, and it is cheaper to 
transport these pupils to a central school than to provide a 
separate school for them. More and more we are coming to 
demand agriculture and domestic economy for rural children, 
and it is almost impossible for a single teacher to add to an 
overburdened daily program these new subjects and teach 
any of them efficiently. All of these considerations are leading 
to a steady extension of consolidated schools in nearly every 
state in the Union. Perhaps the consoHdated school is de- 
manded by the play needs of the children and the social needs 
of the community, no less than by educational needs, for it is 
often only at the consolidated school that there will be either 
enough boys to play baseball or enough girls to play basket ball, 
or any other of our team games. The consoHdated school 
usually has a playground of from four to ten acres, so there is 
ample room for games. In some places community picnics 
are held on these grounds on Saturday afternoons, and through 
these and through evening lectures, entertainments, and mov- 
ing pictures there is made possible the real organization of 
the community life. In all of these schools either the prin- 
cipal or some one else should be paid an extra salary as the 
organizer of recreation and social life for the children and the 
community. Perhaps no other one thing could do so much 
to make country Hfe attractive and to keep the boys and girls 
on the farm. 

The County Superintendent. — The really decisive factor 
in the organization of play in the county will probably be the 
county superintendent of schools. In connection with the 



146 Practical Conduct of Play 

County Teachers' Institute it is possible to teach the games 
to the teachers of the county and to give them instruction 
in the organization of the activities at their own schools. 
The county superintendent also can send out programs of the 
activities to be undertaken and arrange for contests between 
rural schools, for county play festivals, and for pageants. 
There are a considerable number of counties in which some 
such organization is already in effect. 

The County Secretary of the Y.M.C.A. — There were, in 
April, 1 914, eighty-nine county secretaries of the Y.M.C.A. 
in the United States. These county secretaries are nearly all 
organizers of athletics and games for the boys, to a larger or 
smaller degree, in the counties of which they have charge, 
and they usually conduct an annual play festival, often in 
connection with the county fair. The girls, however, thus far 
have been largely neglected under this arrangement, and the 
girls in the country need organized play far more than the 
boys do, because they receive at home and at school so much 
less encouragement to play. However, the newly organized 
county Y.W.C.A.'s may soon be doing a similar work for 
the girls. 

The Paid Director of Play and Recreation for the County. — 
In the country sections of Germany and Denmark there is an 
ofhcial who is known as a Spiel Inspector whose business is to 
organize play over the country districts of which he has charge. 
We may hope that at some time such an official may be em- 
ployed in the country sections of the United States. It is 
certainly no easier to conduct play in the country with no one 
in charge than it is in the city, and it is the lack of recreation 
in the country which is largely responsible for the constant 
migration of the country people to the cities. 



The Organizer of Play 147 

VOLUNTEER ASSISTANTS 

It is very difficult to furnish such a number of directors on 
a playground as will be always sufficient and yet never exces- 
sive, for the very good reason that the attendance varies so 
greatly from hour to hour. It frequently happens that there 
will be fifty children present at nine o'clock in the morning, 
and five hundred at six o'clock in the afternoon. If directors 
are furnished for this playground on the basis of the smaller 
number, they will be entirely inadequate for the late after- 
noon, and if a sufficient number is furnished for this later 
time, they will be excessive in the forenoon. Experience 
seems to show that a playground cannot be operated suc- 
cessfully with only volunteer assistants, but I doubt very 
much, also, if it can be satisfactorily operated without them. 
Volunteer assistants are generally unreliable, coming or stay- 
ing away as they please. It does not do to leave a play- 
ground in their hands, as everything is likely to go to wrack 
during the time when they fail to appear, but they are in- 
valuable as assistants to the regular directors at times when 
the attendance is greatest, and it would be a good thing if 
there might be eight or ten such volunteers for each of the 
larger playgrounds. There are three different kinds of vol- 
unteers who are serving in the different playgrounds : 

Apprentice Directors. — Very often, in lieu of taking a 
regular course of training, a teacher or other person who wishes 
to become a playground director goes into a playground and 
serves for a period of weeks for the sake of the experience, 
in the hope of getting an appointment later at a regular 
salary. Often, also, normal school seniors and juniors have 
gone into a playground in the summer in the same way and 



148 Practical Conduct of Play 

have later been appointed to positions there. It is a good 
thing to have such apprentices on the playground, and the 
experience, if they are with a competent director, frequently 
proves a fairly satisfactory training. 

Fathers and Mothers. — Every inducement should be given 
to the fathers and mothers to come over to the playground 
during the time just before and just after supper and to get 
them to assist the director in the various activities. They are 
often glad to be starters in the races and judges in the finishes, 
to give certain tests to the children, and to help in the manage- 
ment of the playground apparatus. Being, as a rule, known to 
the children of the neighborhood, they serve as a moral safe- 
guard and at the same time help to develop the spirit of co- 
operation in the community. Their assistance in discipline 
is often very desirable. 

Social Workers. — The social workers of the neighborhood 
are apt to regard the playground as belonging to them and 
very often are willing to assist at such times as they have 
leisure. Since they usually know the children through the 
settlement clubs and other work, they are often very valuable 
helpers. This relationship with the children on the play- 
grounds strengthens their hold upon the community as well 
as upon the children themselves. 

Child Assistants. — As we all know, the first systems of 
education upon the large scale were based upon the idea that 
the teacher should be in general charge, but that the instruc- 
tion should be given largely by student assistants or appren- 
tice teachers who should work under him. We are all familiar 
with the work of Bell and Lancaster in England, and even 
to-day the use of student assistants is general there. Perhaps 
there is no place where children can be of more assistance than 



The Organizer of Play 149 

on the playground, and every director should endeavor to get 
the cooperation of all the children in the undertakings which 
the playground wishes to carry on. It is only through this 
cooperation that the playground can be what it ought to be 
for the children of the community. There should be at least 
ten or a dozen of the older boys and girls who will serve as 
assistants on each playground. If these children are real 
leaders, they may often do much to make the spirit of the 
playground and to ease the strain of discipline and the care 
of supplies for the director. Such positions of trust are also a 
great advantage to children, for there is nothing like respon- 
sibiHty to develop manhness and dependability in boys and 
womanliness and reliability in girls. Fifty or sixty years ago, 
in the days of the pioneers, boys and girls of fifteen or sixteen 
were often married and started in life for themselves. History 
shows that they were capable, making homes, rearing families, 
and becoming worthy members of the community. These 
facts would seem to show that we are extending the childhood 
of our children unnecessarily where we keep them too long 
from having any normal responsibilities. Very often an 
irresponsible and troublesome boy, when placed in charge 
of the swings or the distribution of certain supplies, or made 
umpire or coach for a certain game, seems suddenly trans- 
formed from his previous self, and becomes permanently re- 
liable and helpful. 

If the leaders of three or four of the street gangs are chosen 
as monitors or assistants, they often solve at once the problem 
of discipHne and disorder, but the director must be careful 
how he places before the children in positions of authority boys 
or girls whom they ought not to imitate. 

It is a good thing to have a " Leader " button of some kind 



150 Practical Conduct of Play 

(usually a celluloid button is satisfactory), perhaps with a 
ribbon attached, for the children who are to serve as assistants. 
Privileges of certain kinds should be given to these children. 
It is wise always to require a period of probation before these 
badges are conferred and to have the children understand that 
they will lose the distinction if they are not equal to the respon- 
sibilities placed upon them. Very often they seek these 
badges eagerly and are willing to render almost any sort of 
service for them. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE TRAINING OF PLAY DIRECTORS. NATURE OF COURSES i 

In the fall of 1909 the Playground Association of America 
issued a Normal Course in Play. Since that time there has 
been a very rapid development of normal courses throughout 
the country and a large number of teachers and others have 
taken the courses given. These are of four different kinds: 
(i) those given by normal schools of physical education, 
state normal schools, and universities ; (2) play institutes, 
which are usually concentrated courses of one or two weeks' 
duration; (3) training courses given by city systems; and 
(4) summer courses at universities and normal schools. The 
most elaborate of these courses are those given in connection 
with schools of physical education. The following courses 
are hsted in the Sources of Information on Recreation pub- 
Hshed by the Department of Recreation of the Russell Sage 
Foundation : 

Baltimore Training School for Playground Workers, Baltimore, Maryland. 
Boston School for Social Workers, Boston, Massachusetts. 
Chautauqua School of Physical Education, Chautauqua, New York. 

(Summer Session.) 
Chicago Training School for Playground Workers, Chicago, Illinois. 
Colorado State Teachers College, Greeley, Colorado. 
Columbia University, Teachers College, New York City. 
First District Normal School, Kirksville, Missouri. 
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Summer Session.) 

1 For a fuller treatment of this topic see the author's Education Through Play, 
Chapter XVI. 

151 



152 Practical Conduct of Play 

Illinois State Normal University, Normal, Illinois. 

International Y.M.C.A. College, Springfield, Massachusetts. 

Kansas State Normal, Emporia, Kansas. 

Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Palo Alto, California. 

Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Massachusetts. (Summer 
Session.) 

McGill University, Montreal, Canada. (Summer Session.) 

Mississippi Industrial Institute and College, Columbus, Mississippi. 

New Haven Normal School of Gymnastics, New Haven, Connecticut. 

New York Normal School of Physical Education, 308 West 59th St., 
New York City. 

New York Kindergarten Association, Department of Graduate Study, 
New York City. 

New York School of Philanthropy, 105 East 2 2d St., New York City. 

Normal College of the North American Gymnastic Union, Indianapolis, 
Indiana. 

Normal School of Physical Education, Battle Creek, Michigan. (Sum- 
mer Session.) 

Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. 

Posse Normal School of Gymnastics, Boston, Massachusetts. 

Sargent School for Physical Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

State Normal School, Bellingham, Washington. 

State Normal School, Cheney, Washington. 

State Normal School, Chico, California. 

State Normal and Training School, Cortland, New York. 

State Normal School, Hyannis, Massachusetts. 

State Normal School, San Diego, California. (Summer Session.) 

State Normal School, Superior, Wisconsin. 

State Normal School, Valley City, North Dakota. 

State Normal School, Ypsilanti, Michigan. 

St. Louis Y.W.C.A., St. Louis, Missouri. 

State Teachers College, Cedar Falls, Iowa. 

Thomas Normal Training School, Detroit, Michigan. 

University of California, Berkeley, California. 

University of Missouri, Columbus, Missouri. 

University of Montana, Missoula, Montana. (Summer Session.) 



The Training of Play Directors 153 

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. 

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. 

University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. 

University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. 

Western Normal School, Kalamazoo, Michigan. 

Winona State Normal, Winona, Minnesota. 

Winthrop College, Rock Hill, South Carolina. (Summer Session.) 

Y.M.C.A.. Institute and Training School, Chicago, Illinois. (Summer 

Session.) 
Y.W.C.A. National Training School, New York City. 

This is by no means a complete list of schools training play 
leaders, as there are a number of private normal schools and 
kindergarten schools which are also giving courses, and also 
several more in summer schools. 

Schools of Physical Training. — The more elaborate of these 
schools of physical education give, beside their regular two 
or three years' course in physical training, special courses in 
games and folk dancing. Some of them give also the kinder- 
garten games and the industrial work of the playgrounds, and 
most of them offer certain courses in the theory of playground 
management and activities. However, in nearly all of these 
schools the playground treatment is incidental to the general 
study of physical training, and the amount of time which is ac- 
tually devoted to the playground activities, over and above that 
required for a regular course in physical training, is not large. 

Play Institutes. — The Playground Association of Germany, 
since its foundation in 1891, has been giving each year in all 
of the principal cities of Germany play institutes one week 
in duration. These institutes have been in charge, in nearly 
every case, of high-grade physical trainers who have in general 



154 Practical Conduct of Play 

devoted the forenoon to the theoretical discussion of play, 
and the afternoon to the actual practice of games and athletics. 
These courses have been taken by about sixty thousand 
teachers. They are much too brief to be a complete training, 
but as an introduction to the organization of play, and es- 
pecially when repeated from year to year, they furnish an 
excellent means for teaching common games and for the 
gradual mastery of the principles of organized play. 

In this country the Playground Association of America 
has also held several similar institutes during the last three or 
four years, in which they have brought together prominent 
leaders from different sections of the country, and a week of 
concentrated work has been given. This, however, has been 
of theory only. 

Courses by Local Authorities. — In fifty-nine cities training 
courses were given during 191 3 under the supervision of the 
playground authorities. In Philadelphia a two years' course, 
one hundred hours in all, has been given for several years. 
The class meets every Friday night from November until May 
for a two hour and a half session, which consists of three periods, 
one of which is devoted to theory. Similar courses also are 
being given in Baltimore and in Cleveland, and less elaborate 
ones in a number of other cities. The directors of the play- 
grounds in these cities are chosen from those who have taken 
these courses. Mr. Stecher in Philadelphia thinks that it is a 
very great advantage for his teachers to take these courses, 
even if they are not going into the playground, as it makes 
them more helpful in the organization of games in the school- 
room, at recess time and after school. 

State Normal Schools. — In all of the state normal schools 
of Germany, normal courses in play are now being given, and 



The Training of Play Directors 155 

there are many normal schools in this country where longer 
or shorter courses have been initiated during the last two or 
three years. It is probable that a normal course in play will 
soon be a part of the regular work in all of our normal schools, 
in the North at least. The organization of play is becoming 
more and more a part of the teacher's work ; in many places 
certain of the teachers are now required to be present on the 
playgrounds during the school recesses and perhaps for a 
brief period before and after school, and in a considerable 
number of cities the teachers of the lower grades take their 
children into the yard for several periods of play and physical 
training each week. 

Summer Schools. — There are more courses given during 
the summer than at any other time, and some of these courses 
are very well attended. For instance, there were about twelve 
hundred teachers registered for this course at the University of 
California two years ago, and nearly everywhere it is one of 
the most popular courses with the teachers. This is a very 
hopeful sign, because it shows that the teachers themselves 
are appreciating the need. A play course is an admirable 
summer course for teachers, because it gives them the open 
air and is a real reHef from the conditions of the class- 
room. Every teacher undoubtedly should have at least as 
much training in the line of play and public recreation as can 
be secured during a summer session. At the International 
Meeting of Physical Education, held in Vienna in 191 1, it 
was unanimously resolved that a normal course in play 
should be a part of the training of all teachers. 

Inadequacy of the Courses now Given. — It may be said 
in general that all of the present courses given are inadequate 
as a full preparation for a playground position, but they give 



156 Practical Conduct of Play 

an initial training which ought to enable the teacher at least 
to get started in the right direction. Playground preparation 
is in about the same stage to-day as training for the public 
schools was fifty years ago, when normal schools were just 
being established. Practically none of the schools have ade- 
quate opportunity for practice, and in most of them the time 
devoted to the course is altogether too short for anything 
more than a superficial preparation. A preparation which 
would really meet the need should consist, in about equal 
proportions, of the theoretical consideration of play, athletics, 
dancing, and the other activities involved, and the practice of 
these activities under competent supervision. At present, 
the schools of physical training are all weak on the social side 
of the work and also in failing to furnish opportunity for their 
students to practice the activities with the children on the 
playgrounds. The schools of social service are weak, usually, 
on the side of play activities, athletics, and dancing, as well as 
in opportunity for practice. The kindergarten schools, while 
strong in their preparation for the work with little children, 
give very inadequate preparation for the work with older 
children. Probably as time goes on, the training for play- 
ground positions, as a branch of the teaching profession, will 
be given by the public normal schools, the same as training 
for other teaching positions. As these schools already have 
departments of physical training, music, manual training, 
nature study, pedagogy, and sociology, with model schools 
where the activities may be practiced with the children, it 
seems certain that the preparation offered by the state normal 
schools will ultimately be more satisfactory than anything 
that is now available, and in a large way the whole move- 
ment is now awaiting the better development of these courses. 



The Training of Play Directors 157 

TRAINING AFTER APPOINTMENT 

Under existing circumstances it is almost necessary that a 
considerable portion of the training of playground directors 
should be obtained after their appointment, and this is one 
reason why the supervisor of playgrounds at the present time 
needs to be a high-grade individual. In a number of cities 
it is the custom for him to have a one- or two-hour meeting with 
all of the play directors every week or every two weeks dur- 
ing the season, for the discussion of problems of the play- 
ground. Of course the supervisor also gives constant sug- 
gestions to the directors while they are at their duties on the 
ground. The following is a set of suggestions which I always 
gave out to the directors in Washington at the beginning of 
each season, the suggestion as to dress having been expanded 
later. 

The work of a playground director is not easy. To lead children with- 
out bossing them ; to control by love, yet to secure prompt obedience ; 
to keep a number of different activities going at the same time, requires 
a high order of ability. 

Your highest aim should be to get such a spirit in your ground that 
the children will all cooperate in making it a success. This means that 
they will be better friends to each other for belonging to the same ground, 
the regular attendants will instruct the new children in the games, and 
they will endeavor to protect the playground property. This sort of loy- 
alty is in part directed toward the teacher, in part toward the children, 
and in part toward the ground itself. It is created largely through the 
ring and other games in which the director and children play together. 

Form regular teams whenever possible. This reduces the number of 
units with which you have to deal, creates loyalty, and makes the children 
responsible. You will need substitutes. Try to give each team a regular 
time to play, otherwise the members will not all come at the same time. 

You are there to see that all the children have a good time. The 
attendance of the children will be a fair measure of your success. 



158 Practical Conduct of Play 

Dress so that you will be comfortable. The costume is a large element 
in the comfort and efficiency of the teacher. No woman can go upon the 
playground in high-heeled shoes and a hobble skirt and expect to do any- 
thing worth while. Neither can a man come out with a high collar and 
patent leathers and expect to be an efficient director. It is essential 
that the dress worn should be simple and rather loose, and especially 
that the shoes should be comfortable. The men should wear outing 
shirts and gymnasium trousers with easy shoes. The women should 
wear loose blouses without corsets and short skirts over bloomers. 

Send in your report card every day and put on it, besides your time 
and attendance of children, everything this office needs to know. 

SUGGESTIONS 

1. Have a general program for every day. 

2. Make a brief special program for each coming day. 

3. Always be on time. 

4. Have something interesting for the children the first period, morn- 
ing and afternoon. Always have it. Do not wait for the children, if there 
is one present. Have games the last part of the morning and afternoon. 

5. Have story- telling and reading and industrial work on rainy days 
and in the early afternoon each day. 

6. When it rains, use the play rooms. 

7. If it rains and then clears up, do not stay away the whole half day. 
The children will not. 

8. Be sure you have a safe place to store the apparatus under lock 
and key. 

9. Never send children promiscuously to this room. 

10. If apparatus disappears or is destroyed, try to get the children to 
replace it by a collection. It wiU make them careful. 

11. Always see that the apparatus is taken down at 11 and at 8. 

12. If any piece of apparatus is broken, report it at once to the office. 

APPARATUS 

1. Keep the sand bin free from paper, lunch, etc. 

2. Do not let the children' sit on the teeter ladders. It is dangerous. 



The Training of Play Directors 159 

3, Change the children in the swings by whistle, or count, or ticket. 
Have monitors. 

4. Have regular teams of three in tether ball. Get them to choose a 
name. Let them have a regular time to play. Let members of your first 
team umpire for the beginners. Always live up to the rules. Keep the 
score from day to day. 

. 5. Have regular teams of indoor baseball and other games in the 
same way, if you have room. 

6. Have an umpire for croquet. There are many chances to cheat. 

7. Be so severe with each case of discovered cheating that cheating 
will not be profitable. 

LEADERS 

1. You can best control the ground and create a good spirit by getting 
hold of the leaders. Learn their names and give them a "Leader" button 
(after a sufficient probation) . 

2. Do not make a leader of a child who is conspicuously careless about 
cleanliness or who would not have good influence. 

3. Get your leaders together occasionatty to talk over things. Give 
them special privileges. 

CONDUCT IN THE PLAYGROUND 

1. Habits and character are formed more rapidly in the playground 
than in the school. 

2. By imitation of you, the children should learn justice, courtesy, 
and kindness. 

3. Children form friendships more rapidly and firmly in play than in 
study. Learn to know as many children as you can and call them by 
name, if possible. Encourage a spirit of friendhness among the children. 

4. Be as polite to a child as you would to a respected friend. 

5. Encourage the backward children and bring them into the games. 

6. Check and speak to the children who always wish to lead in every- 
thing. 

7. If you have a small playground, you have the better chance to 
become acquainted and create a good spirit. 

8. Permit no obscenity, profanity, or smoking. 



i6o Practical Conduct of Play 

9. Keep the children from yeUing and the apparatus from squeaking, 
otherwise the neighbors will complain. 

10. Children may be punished by excluding them from teams or 
games, or for a longer or shorter period from the playground. 

11. If any of these children make further trouble by destructive 
conduct or insulting language, report the case at once to the ofl&ce, with 
nature of offense and name and address of the offender. 

12. Before a matched contest with another playground, speak to the 
children of the courtesy due to their guests. 

Reading. — Every director who wishes to keep up with his 
profession should take The Playground, of course, and it would 
also be greatly to his advantage if he could take The Survey, 
Mind and Body, Scouting, and Wahelo. The bound volumes of 
Proceedings of the Playground and Recreation Association oj 
America will be helpful additions to his playground library 
and should be added if they can be afforded. 

THE SELECTION OF PLAY DIRECTORS 

In a considerable number of cities a civil service examina- 
tion is required for all positions. One of the conditions, in 
connection with these examinations, often is that a person 
shall be a resident of the city in which it takes place. This is 
a bad thing because it excludes trained workers from the out- 
side. The civil service examination is in a way an advan- 
tage, because it prevents political retainers without any 
qualifications from being appointed, and it also prevents 
competent directors from being discharged without cause for 
the purpose of putting in the retainers of some particular 
party ; but where the government is honest and efficient, it is 
questionable whether the civil service examination is an 
advantage. 



The Training of Play Directors i6i 

In the Tentative Report to the Playground Association of 
America of its Committee on A Normal Course in Play made 
in 1909, it is stated that the appointment to playground 
positions should be made on the basis of three quahfications : 
the first is, passing a written examination on the theory of 
the various activities involved ; the second is the acceptable 
practice of these activities with children ; and the third is 
the personality of the applicant. It was suggested that these 
different items be considered as approximately equal in value. 
Certainly it would be very unwise to appoint persons to play- 
ground positions merely on the basis of technical knowledge 
of physical training, anatomy, and equivalent subjects. No 
person who has not the play spirit and the ability to secure 
the cooperation of children, along with a considerable degree 
of personal refinement, should ever be placed in a playground. 

Probably it is best that there should be an examination. 
But the examination having been passed, there should be no 
requirement that the applicants should be appointed in the 
order of their standing in the examination, but the play- 
ground authorities should be left free to select from the 
eligible list the candidates whom they wish. 

It is customary in most states to acknowledge the graduates 
of reputable normal schools and not to require them to pass a 
special examination in order to receive a teacher's certificate. 
So, also, it seems as though the graduates of reputable schools 
of physical education where playground courses are given 
should be exempted from examination. 

If the supervisor of playgrounds is to be responsible 
for the work committed to him, he must have considerable 
voice in regard to the grade of people selected for playground 
positions as well as to those who are to be reappointed or 



1 62 Practical Conduct of Play 

dropped from it, and there should be no iron-bound civil 
service rule which will prevent this. 

In the cities where training courses are given, the directors 
are usually selected from those who have taken the courses. 
This practically excludes applicants from outside the city, 
but it serves a very useful purpose in securing a considerable 
number of teachers who are eligible for positions whenever 
vacancies occur. 

The Playground and Recreation Association of America 
keeps a Hst of places desiring play directors and of play 
directors desiring jobs, and it is often wise for those wishing 
positions, and especially those who have had training, to regis- 
ter with them. 



CHAPTER X 
PLAYGROUND PROGRAMS 

It has been said that "we should always have a program on 
the playground but we should never use it." If we say rather 
that we should always have a program, but we should never 
be bound by it, we shall have a workable policy. The play- 
ground that has no program achieves little. It becomes a 
mere loafing place for children. Nowhere in life does one ac- 
complish much without any idea of what he wants to do, and 
everywhere in life definite ideas tend to become actual accom- 
plishments. To these conditions the playground is no excep- 
tion. The playground director must have a clear idea of 
what he wishes to accomplish, but his program should be 
largely held in solution. For a large part of the activities a 
definite time need not be set, but the director must realize 
that these things are to be done and fit them into the day as 
there is opportunity. Thus a time schedule is not strictly 
necessary, but a program of things to be done is absolutely 
essential. 

The playground director without experience or training is 
apt to be at a loss as to what to do in the beginning, and he 
usually waits for something to happen. But the thing that 
happens under such circiunstances is usually the thing that 
should not happen, and he becomes a mere caretaker. Still, 
play and programs seem to be somewhat incompatible. All 
play is a survival from earlier forms of activity, which were 

163 



164 Practical Conduct of Play 

characterized by freedom. Birds and animals, with a few 
exceptions, provide for immediate needs as they arise, and 
take no thought for the future. Primitive men and modern 
children have no plan of accomplishment for the day, the week, 
or the year. They use no long-distance motives but depend 
on the stimulus of immediate necessity. A program of any 
kind always implies a purpose, the realization of which is more 
or less removed. Play has also this characteristic of freedom. 
The spirit follows its own guidance. Play that is compelled, 
that we come to unwillingly, ceases to be play. Play in its 
very nature is voluntary, without a purpose ; it is its own re- 
ward. When we read of play curriculums in Germany, we 
are likely to say they may require something, but it is not 
play. Play cannot be compelled. If you compel a bashful 
boy to come in and play "Drop the handkerchief" with a 
group of girls, it will not be play for him. If the boy wants to 
go fishing and you require him to play tennis, tennis will 
probably be drudgery. The professional baseball player is 
not playing any more than the lawyer or doctor is when he is 
at his work. Any activity that is not free may be worth 
while, but it is not play. However, it must be remembered 
that the program and the purpose are in the mind of the 
director not of the child; this being so, the changes should 
always come to the player as easy and natural transitions 
from one activity to another. 

Is the playground to be a place of amusement or a place of 
accomplishment ? This is the most fundamental question in 
regard to it. In general, the park authorities have said 
that the playground is a place of amusement, the school 
authorities that it is a place of accomplishment. If the play- 
ground is to be a mere place where the children come to loaf, 




A Dutch Dance at Gary, Indiana. 




80- Yard Dash, Athletic Meet, East Park, Worcester, Mass. 



Playground Programs 165 

shoot craps, tell stones, or play as the fancy moves them, then 
the idea of a program is utterly foreign to it. But if, on the 
other hand, the authorities think there is a certain valuable 
training that the playground can give the child, then some 
sort of program is essential. 

WHAT ACTIVITIES? 

In Persia, Sparta, Athens, Rome, and many other ancient 
nations, all the boys of the upper classes were trained in run- 
ing, wrestling, jumping, and various other athletic exercises. 
These are activities of great natural interest to boys. Ex- 
cellence in them always confers distinctions upon the possessor. 
Such exercises develop the heart and lungs and give a robust 
physique. They are worth while for boys and girls alike, up to 
a certain age. Every boy ought to be able to play well all 
of our common games. They afford good exercise and social 
training. They are the real accomplishments of the boy 
world. Nothing else confers so much distinction. 

Every boy and girl ought to acquire skill of the hand during 
the plastic period of youth, because it is very difficult to become 
skillful later if no beginning has been made early in life. The 
playground is not necessarily the place for the girls to learn 
sewing and rafha and basketry, but this is for most of them a 
form of constructive play which they usually appreciate. In 
vacation playgrounds which are in operation all day, it is best 
to have certain industries interspersed with the more vigorous 
activities, but during the school year, when the children have 
their manual occupations in the school and far too little exer- 
cise, these occupations and the busy work are best omitted. 

Folk dancing is excellent physical exercise. It is rhyth- 
mical and often graceful. It is a form of activity that is likely 



1 66 Practical Conduct of Play 

to be continued until late in life. It is a good substitute for 
the social dances, where a substitute is needed. 

Story-telling is loved by all children. It is one of the 
main forms of recreation and social entertainment among all 
primitive peoples. It would seem that this training at least 
every child requires, and that it must be given by the play- 
grounds, if it is to be given at all. If this is so, then these at 
least must be put into the program. 

THE LENGTH OF PLAY PERIODS 

No general rule can be made as to the length of play periods 
except that the younger the children and the more vigorous 
the activity the shorter the period should be. Usually the 
more vigorous activities in summer should be placed late in 
the afternoon when it is not too hot and when the older children 
also attend. Any activity for the older girls will have to be 
placed late in the forenoon or late in the afternoon, for the 
reason that they have to help at home in the morning and right 
after dinner. It is well also to plan to have periods of low 
activity follow others that are vigorous, so that no one may 
overdo. There should be a period of story- telling, a period of 
busy work — paper folding, picture pasting, weaving, etc. — 
and a period of ring games each forenoon and afternoon for 
the kindergarten children. But these should leave ample 
time for the swings, the slide, the sand bin, and the wading 
pool. For the older girls, there should be a period of folk 
dancing, of athletics, of games, and of industrial work, though 
several of these may go on at the same time. The program 
is more for the teacher than the children. Not all of the girls 
will wish to weave or sew. There is no reason in principle 
why they should discontinue their play because the others are 



Playground Programs 167 

having weaving or sewing. However, in practice this may 
sometimes be necessary, because the games may interfere 
with what the teacher is doing. This will depend, however, 
very largely on the size of the ground. In a small ground, if 
the teacher is telling a story, all noisy games will have to be 
discontinued, and the children assembled. 

DIFFERENT KINDS OF PROGRAMS 

Different play supervisors have very different ideas as to 
the desirability of having definite time schedules for play, 
but whatever their views in this respect, I suppose most of 
them would agree that the following programs are necessary : 
A general program of the things to be done, which may be little 
more than a selection of the activities to be pursued — the 
folk dances, athletics, and games that are to be the subject 
matter of the play curriculum ; a program for the play festival 
and frequent exhibitions in the local neighborhood ; a pro- 
gram for rainy days and inclement weather; a schedule for 
teams ; and finally a daily program. In most cases not all 
of these programs are consciously formulated, but I believe 
it is a great advantage to have them worked out definitely in 
advance. Definite ideas always lead to efficiency and dis- 
patch, as indefinite ideas lead to delays and inefficiency. 

The General Program. — The general program of the play- 
ground corresponds to the course of study at the school. It fits 
into each day the things in which the playgrounds are to give 
training. In general, it should correspond closely to the pro- 
gram of the play festival at the end of the season, because this 
should be an exhibition of the work of the season. The making 
of this general program is probably the most important work 
that the play supervisor has to do. The superintendent of 



1 68 Practical Conduct of Play 

schools inherits his course of study, but the playground super- 
intendent must make his own. This is one reason why it is 
so important that cities should secure a capable superintendent 
in the beginning. 

In many cases the superintendent makes out the time 
schedule for each playground as well as the program of activi- 
ties to be pursued. It is not necessary that he should do it 
for the directors, though it may sometimes be wise for him to 
do so. In any case the schedule should be elastic as to its 
limits, scarcely more than a suggestion as to the times for 
beginning and closing any period. 

If there are certain playground specialists, story-tellers, 
teachers of folk dancing, of industrial work, and so on, who go 
from ground to ground, it will be necessary that their schedule, 
at least, be made by the supervisor of playgrounds ; for there 
must be a definite period at which they are to be expected at 
each playground, in order that the children who want to play 
or work with them may be there. Many children come to the 
playground for certain things only, as the older girls for the 
industrial work, or the folk dancing, or the story hour. This 
requires a general program into which these activities are 
fitted. 

An Exhibition Program. — About once a week it is wise 
to have a special program or exhibition which the parents 
should be invited to attend. This serves as a climax to the 
activities of the week, and gives the children something to look 
forward to. They take more interest in practicing the folk 
dances, games, and other activities, if they know there is to 
be an exhibition, when they are to show them off. Especially 
is this true if the papers send representatives, and an account 
of the events appears in print. These exhibitions are the best 



Playground Programs 169 

advertisements the playgrounds have. They serve to bring 
out the parents who would not come at other times and they 
attract and interest many new children. Ordinarily the pro- 
gram of this exhibition may well correspond closely with the 
daily program, thus showing what the playgrounds are doing, 
and requiring no special preparation. But it is well also to 
have special features at times. As, for instance, one Saturday 
afternoon, there might be a baby show for the little mothers, 
with the parents of the neighborhood coming in to judge. A 
tea given by the women's club in the playground pavilion, an 
exhibition of the industrial work, a May Pole dance, a dramatic 
entertainment, a historic pageant, a hike and picnic are other 
possibilities. There is an almost infinite variety of such 
programs that may be developed, many of which will be 
the best kind of entertainment for the parents as well as the 
children and serve to secure their cooperation in making the 
playground a success. There are also many quarters of our 
greatest cities where the mothers need the play as much as the 
children or even more than they. 

Programs for the Fourth of July and Hallowe^en have been 
worked out with a great deal of detail and are obtainable by 
any one who cares to go into the details of such celebrations. 
These are worth while, and serve to give variety and interest 
to the play activities. 

A Program for Rainy Days. — Most playgrounds are poorly 
provided with facilities for rainy days, and there often is 
pandemonium if the children are driven into the pavilion 
or into the play rooms of the school by a sudden shower. 
The teacher who has made no provision beforehand is likely 
to be helpless. A few sets of dominoes, checkers, and authors 
will help greatly. This is a good time for industrial work, 



170 Practical Conduct of Play 

for talking over coming playground events, and best of all 
for story-telling. It is well for the teacher always to have a 
rainy-day story on hand. 

The Team Program. — The success of a playground depends 
in no small measure on the permanency of its teams. Scrub 
teams never learn the rules, acquire skill, develop loyalty, or 
get much of the training that the game is supposed to give. 
Inasmuch as the children who are old enough to play team 
games do not live on the playground, not all of them will ever 
be there at the same time, in the ordinary course of events, 
and there will be no real team play unless there is a definite 
time for each team to practice. 

The Daily Program. — Perhaps the most important pro- 
gram for the playground is the one that the director makes 
out from day to day. It is the plan of the day's work. It 
is the mapping out of the daily portion of the season's accom- 
plishment. It means for the women director perhaps some- 
thing like the following : To-day I will teach the Irish Hit to 
the older girls. I will show them how to make a basket of 
raffia and reed. I will get all the captains of the volley ball 
teams together and talk over with them the games we are to 
have. I will talk with Sally Jones about washing her face 
and combing her hair, and I will ask Mary Smith to be more 
careful of her language. For the teacher of the little children, 
this may mean: I will tell the story of Jack and the Bean 
Stalk and have the children illustrate it in the sand. We will 
cut pictures out of old magazines and newspapers and make 
scrapbooks. We will practice Soldier Boy, etc. On the 
boys' side, this will mean a choice of athletics and games, and 
conferences with certain children on a variety of subjects. 
On the school playground at recess and after school a time 



Playground Programs 171 

schedule may not be needed at all, but a program of things 
to do is always necessary. 

SPECIMENS OF PROGRAMS 

Probably Philadelphia and New York City issue the most 
elaborate time schedules of play activities of any of our cities. 
They are as follows : 

Philadelphia Programs. — While it is not advisable to have a "cast 
iron" program, it must be understood that every playground must have 
a program, elastic and suited to its conditions, which may be varied ac- 
cording to temperature, rain, or other temporary local conditions. 

It is to be understood that the change from one activity to another is 
not always to take place at the minute suggested in the programs. If 
the children are in the midst of an interesting game, do not make a change. 

As a helpful suggestion to the teacher in arranging activities, two pro- 
grams are outlined somewhat in detail ; one for morning, typical for a 
playground attended by many young children, in charge of older brothers 
or sisters ; the other a program for the afternoon session of a playground 
attended largely by older boys and girls. 

MORNING PROGRAM (For younger children) 

The yard is cleaned and opened by the janitor or caretaker at 8.30 

o'clock. 

8.30 to 9.00. — Free Play (janitor or caretaker in charge). 

9.00 to 9.30. — Morning Exercises. Songs, Nature Talks, or 
Stories. For instance: Hymn — Father, We 
Thank Thee. Songs relating to the weather and 
season, i.e.. Good Morning to You, Glorious Sun; 
Good Morning, Pleasant Sunshine ; Wake, Says the 
Sunshine; or songs emphasizing the season; or 
songs connecting with the thought to be developed 
by the teacher during the story. Tell the story of 
Bennie's Sunshine ; or have Rhymes, Finger Plays, 
or Sense Games. 



172 



Practical Conduct of Play 



9.30 to 10.00 



10.00 to 10.30 



Distribute Small Play Materials, such as sand 
buckets, bean bags, horse Hnes, ring toss, quoits ; 
also books, etc. 

Free Play (under direction of the teachers). 

Marching. For instance: For younger children, 
simple marching and rhythmic exercises — flying 
birds, galloping ponies, skipping, creeping, run- 
ning, etc. 

Games eor Younger Children. For instance: 
Little Children, Come Let us Form a Ring; 
Did You Ever See a Lassie? How Do You Do, 
My Partner? Drop the Handkerchief; Sun- 
beams; Spin the Platter; Quiet Game. 

Older children during this time, under direction 
of a leader, are at play on the apparatus or with 
quoits, ring toss, etc. 

Games of Higher Organization, Team Games. For 
instance: Fist ball, end ball, corner ball, pris- 
oners' base. 

Young children during this time play in the 
sand, on the swings, with bean bags, etc. 

Folk Dances or Directed Work on the Apparatus. 
For instance: Class work on the giant stride, on 
the ladder, or on the horizontal bar. 

If folk dances: The Carrousel; I See You; 
Come, Dear Partner, Dance with Me; Shoe- 
makers' Dance ; Gustaf 's Skoal, etc. 

Occupation Work conducted in groups of younger 
and older children ; having a leader in charge of 
each group. For instance : For younger children, 
paper construction work ; simple exercises in pa- 
per folding, making furniture, or simple winding 
exercises in rafha, making picture frames. Older 
children make baskets with rafha or reed, make 
hammocks, or cane chairs. 
12.00 to 12.30. — Free Play and Dismissal (luncheon period). 



10.30 to 11.00 



11.00 to 12.00. 



Playground Programs 173 

AFTERNOON PROGRAM (For older chUdren) 

1.30 to 2.00. — Patriotic Songs. Songs and stories emphasizing ideas 
of service. For instance: America; Hats Off, the 
Flag is Passing By ; There are Many Flags of Many 
Lands ; Betsy Ross ; Salute the Flag, etc. Tell a 
hero story, such as How Cedric Became a Knight, etc. 

2.00 to 2.30. — Free Play (under supervision of the teachers). 

2.30 to 3.00. — Track and Field Work. Dashes, relay races in shuttle 
form, or obstacle relay. During this time give to 
the younger children games of skill like ring toss, 
potato race (planting and picking) , etc. 

3.00 to 3.30. — Team Games of High Organization for Girls. For 
instance : Captain ball or volley ball. Let the boys 
play quoits or tether ball during this time, and give 
to the younger children the swings, teeter boards, etc. 

3.30 to 4.00. — Team Games of High Organization for Boys. For 
instance: Hand baseball, battle ball, progressive 
dodge ball. Let the girls play ring toss or bean 
bag games during this time. Encourage girls to 
play games previously taught, under the leadership 
of one of their own number. 

4.00 to 5.00. — Occupation Work, Team Games, or Folk Dances. 
For instance : Cardboard sloyd or scrapbook mak- 
ing, grouping the pictures with some idea of intel- 
lectual development, relating perhaps to the litera- 
ture of great men and women. For the boys, have 
knife work. Kites can be made; put the frame 
together, paste on the paper decorated with the boys* 
own designs. 

If team games are to be played: Rabbits, pris- 
oners' base, etc. 

If folk dances : Will You Dance with Me ? I See 
You; Come, Little Partner; The Wind; Strasak; 
German Clap Dance, etc. 



174 Practical Conduct of Play 

SPECIAL PROGRAMS 

One afternoon of each week a series of patriotic songs, games, or some 
suitable review of the work should be presented. Saluting the flag, or 
where possible, a flag-raising exercise with suitable marching and songs 
is also appropriate, especially in the so-called "foreign districts." These 
special programs are to be arranged each week and an effort made to 
create through them a neighborhood interest in the playground. Invite 
the parents to be present. Interest civic organizations to send repre- 
sentatives. 

SONG-GAMES SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER TEN 

YEARS 

1. Ring Games. Forming the Ring. First, Second, and Third Ring 

Songs by Patty Hill. 

2. Imitation Games. Laddie and Lassie (Eleanor Smith, No. 2). 

Farmer in the Dell. Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush. 
The Musician (Mari Hofer). 

3. Pursuit OR Teasing Games. We All Stand Here in this Nice Ring. 

Chasing the Squirrel. Drop the Handkerchief (Stecher's Games). 

4. Social Games. As I was Going Down the Street (Hofer). I Went 

to Visit a Friend One Day (Poulsson). 

5. Partner or Courtesy Games, Emphasizing Social Relations. 

How Do You Do, My Partner? (Hofer). Let Your Feet Tramp 
(Hubbard). Come, Dear Partner, Dance with Me (Philadel- 
phia Handbook) . 

New York City Program. 

' Marching 
1. 00 to 1.30 Singing 

Assembly Salute to the Flag 

Talk by Principal 
1.30 to 2.30 f Kindergarten 

Organized games 1 Gymnastic 
2.30 to 3.00 

Organized free play 



Playground Programs 



175 



3.00 to 4.00 
Drills 
Folk dances 


Gymnastic 
, Military 


Apparatus work 


Raffia 


Occupation work 


Basketry 
Scrapbooks 


4.00 to 4.45 

Organized games 
Basket ball 


Gymnastic 
. Kindergarten 


4.45 to 5.15 
Athletics 




Good citizens' clut 




5.15 to 5.30 
Dismissal 


1 Marching 
1 Singing 



CHAPTER XI 

THE PLAYGROUND ATTENDANCE 

To those who have not thought much about it, it appears 
that the play movement has grown out of the increasing con- 
gestion of our cities, and that the one thing needful is to restore 
to the children a place where they can play. However, ex- 
perience and even the simplest observation of actual conditions 
disproves this view. The vacant lots in the city are seldom 
much used by the children. If any one will keep a record of 
the attendance on any such plot in his neighborhood, I think 
he will find that there are less than one per cent of the children 
there on an average. The older boys will play baseball there 
in the spring and football in the fall, but it will not be much 
used by the little children, and it will probably not be used at 
all by the girls. It will be found, also, as a rule, that the 
presence of vacant squares in the neighborhood makes very 
little difference in the attendance at the playgrounds. There 
was once a playground at One Hundred and Second Street in 
New York City which lay next to a vacant plot of equal size. 
While an attendance of two or three hundred children was 
common on the playground, there seldom were more than 
four or five on the vacant plot. The second year that I was 
supervisor in Washington, we purchased a field that lay on 
the extreme outer edge of the city. Five hundred acres of 
accessible vacant land lay around it. There were usually two 
or three hundred children on the playground each afternoon, 

176 



The Playground Attendance 177 

but seldom was there a child in sight on the vacant land. The 
vacant lot in the city does not make the appeal of the country 
meadow with its brooks and trees and flowers. The play- 
ground that is a mere open space fails because the children 

do not come. 

THE DIRECTOR 

There are many also who believe that what the children 
want is to be left to play by themselves, and one not infre- 
quently hears the expression '' unbossed play " used with 
approval. Certainly play ought not to be bossed, but or- 
ganized play is always more attractive to children than play 
that is unorganized. The great difficulty at all playgrounds 
in the beginning is to get the children to carry on the games 
by themselves. The director will start a game, and the 
children will fall in and play with him. It is necessary to have 
a number of games going at once in order to use the space 
economically in a congested playground, but as soon as the 
director falls out of one game to organize another, the children 
are apt to leave the first game and join the second. During 
the first year that the playgrounds were maintained in Harris- 
burg, Pa., they were kept open without any one in charge. 
The authorities finally concluded that the scheme was not a 
success. They said, "Let us get the best young college athlete 
we can find and send him around to organize the games on the 
different grounds." It worked beautifully. He went to the 
first ground and taught the children several games. Then he 
said to them, '' Now, children, you stay here. I have to go 
to the next playground." He went on to the next playground, 
and the children went with him. Here the same process was 
repeated, until he had become a regular Pied Piper, with 
nearly all the children of the city behind him. Then the 



I y8 Practical Conduct of Play 

authorities concluded that this plan, too, was not a success, 
and put a director in each playground, as they ought to have 
done in the first place. We had this experience in a school 
playground in Washington. The playground was about 
eighty feet square and contained perhaps fifty dollars' worth of 
apparatus. In the beginning of the summer we put into the 
ground a very capable kindergartner and we had an attend- 
ance of four hundred children every day. This kinder- 
gartner went off for her vacation about the middle of the 
summer. A substitute was put in her place and we had 
two hundred children in the same yard. The substitute went 
away a short time before the close of the vacation. We kept 
the playground open in charge of the janitor, with an attend- 
ance of fifteen to twenty-five children. The difference 
between fifteen and four hundred was purely a difference in 
organization. The first teacher was very attractive personally 
and much loved by the children. She knew how to keep a 
whole series of things going in the yard at the same time. She 
gave the children what they wanted and made it interesting 
to them. I believe the director is nearly always the largest 
single element in securing the attendance of the children. 
From season to season in the same playground the attendance 
serves as a good record of his success. 

In the public school the attendance is compulsory and it does 
not therefore express the opinion of the children as to the value 
of the school. In the playgrounds the attendance is voluntary, 
and it serves consequently as an excellent index to the feelings 
of the children in regard to the playground. If it does not 
give them what they want, if it does not appeal to them as 
worth while, they will not come, and consequently the first 
requirement of the playground is that it must secure the at- 



The Playground Attendance 179 

tendance of the children. This attendance will always serve 
as one standard by which to measure the value of the director 
and the success of the playground. It is not the only standard, 
but it is a standard that must be applied along with others. 

OTHER ELEMENTS IN THE ATTENDANCE 

Of course we must not hold the director responsible for the 
sins of the city fathers. Some playgrounds have been located 
in almost impossible positions. It does not follow that be- 
cause there are many people in a certain section of the city 
that there are also many children. Business sections and 
apartment house neighborhoods are apt to have very few. 
It was stated some years ago, that in fifteen blocks on Fifth 
Avenue, New York, there was only one child, and in nearly 
four hundred large apartment houses on tjie upper West Side, 
there were only sixteen children. The playground cannot 
produce the children. If there are few children in the neigh- 
borhood, the attendance at the playground must necessarily 
be small. The registration of the schools of the neighborhood 
will usually serve as a fair index. However, the question is 
not so simple as it looks, as there are apt to be sections of the 
city that do not associate with each other. The children 
from Irish sections will not as a rule come across into Italian 
or Jewish sections or mce versa. The children of a well-to-do 
section will not come into sections inhabited by working people. 
There are often feuds of long standing between certain dis- 
tricts of the city. All of these facts have to be taken into con- 
sideration in laying out playgrounds or the attendance will 
suffer. It may be best in the end to place a playground where 
it will draw from different nationalities, so as to prevent the 
formation of an exclusive foreign colony, but the attendance 



i8o Practical Conduct of Play 

will not be nearly so good at first as it would be if it were 
surrounded by a homogeneous people. 

The Equipment. — The equipment is of course an element 
in securing attendance, though its importance is usually much 
exaggerated. With the exception of the swimming pool, I 
doubt if even the best of equipment will ever hold the children 
for long. In fact, the small attendance in Chicago is a practi- 
cal proof of this statement. However, it does serve to bring 
the children to the playground in the first place, though their 
continued presence will depend mostly on the director and the 
organization of the activities. 

Shade. — One of the very largest elements in securing an 
attendance in the summer time is shade. The children do not 
wish to play in the sun in the hot weather and they will not 
do it. If they cannot get into the shade on the playground 
when the thermometer nears the hundred mark, they will seek 
some place where they can. 

Hours at which the Playground is Open. — These have 
been different in different cities, and in the same city in differ- 
ent years. When the work was taken up in New York, there 
were two sessions, one from 8.30 in the morning to 12.30, and 
the other from i o'clock to 5.30 in the afternoon. The general 
purpose was to have different leaders for the morning and 
the afternoon. This was thought to be necessary on account 
of the severity of the service required. Experience warranted 
the opinion. The children did not know how to play. 
If left to themselves, they would sit or stand about and talk 
or wrangle. When games were organized, they would soon 
break up unless the director continued to play. If the 
director is to join vigorously in the sports of the children, the 
time of service should not be long, though the playground 



The Playground Attendance i8i 

may be kept open indefinitely by changing directors. The 
municipal playgrounds of Chicago are open from 9 o'clock in 
the morning until 9.30 at night. In the South Park System 
they are open under their regular directors from 3.30 until 
10 P.M. during the winter and from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. 
during the summer time. 

In the city of Gary, the school playgrounds are open from 
8 o'clock in the morning till 10 o'clock at night. 

The attendance varies greatly at different hours of the day. 
In general it will be found that the attendance is not so large 
in the forenoon as in the afternoon, in my experience not more 
than half as large, and that it is also much less early in the 
afternoon than it is later. In Washington we always kept our 
playgrounds open until dark in the summer and there were 
always two or three times as many children between five 
o'clock and dark as there were at any other time during the 
day. Where the playgrounds are lighted at night, they 
usually secure the attendance of the working boys and girls 
in the evening. The evening is the most comfortable time 
for athletics and all sorts of vigorous games in summer. 

HOW FAR DO THE CHILDREN COME? 

There is no definite single answer to this question, of course. 
The big children will come farther than the Httle children, the 
boys will come farther than the girls. Children will come 
farther in an open section of the city than they will where 
traffic is congested. The playground is a loadstone to the child ; 
other things being equal, the distance that the children come 
may be taken as a pretty accurate measure of its attractiveness 
and serves as one standard for marking its efficiency. 

However, there are many factors that enter into the problem 



1 82 Practical Conduct of Play 

of attendance. In the study of the registration of the children 
on the lower East Side which was made by the Park and Play- 
ground Association of New York City, in 191 1, it was found 
that ninety per cent of all the children came from within one 
block. In the playgrounds farther up town, where the con- 
gestion was less, it was found that sixty per cent of the children 
still came from within one block. In the study of the kinder- 
garten playgrounds of New York, it was found that practi- 
cally none of the children came more than a three-minute walk. 
In the study of the attendance in Chicago, where the city was 
comparatively open, it was found that seventy-nine per cent 
of all the children came from within one quarter of a mile, 
and about eighty-nine per cent lived less than one half mile 
from the playground. If these figures were analyzed further, 
I think it would be found not only that the seventy-nine per 
cent within the quarter-mile radius included practically all 
the little children, but that while the registration showed 
twenty-one per cent coming from more than a quarter of a 
mile, these children did not come so frequently as these who 
lived nearer, and as a rule they came in for special features 
only. Children will come occasionally to a playground as 
much as two miles away. If it is made very attractive, they 
may even come frequently, but they will not come every day, 
and probably not more than once or twice a week. Boys will 
go a long distance to a swimming place in summer or a skat- 
ing place in winter, but the range of the other features 
is much less. Ambassador Bryce says the London rule is 
that there shall be a playground within a quarter mile of 
every child, — but these playgrounds are usually very small. 
The playground is essentially a neighborhood afifair. It 
ought to be. Parents do not wish their children to go into 



The Playground Attendance 183 

another section of the city to attend a playground. The 
youngsters are always likely to be set upon and maltreated by 
gangs if they do. It is not safe for adolescent or even younger 
girls to attend frequently a playground at a considerable 
distance from their homes, going and coming through a section 
of which they or their parents know little. The small children 
cannot safely go far by themselves, for fear of their getting 
lost. It would thus appear that the playground should be in 
the neighborhood in which the children live. It should not 
be more than half a mile away, and it will be much better if 
it can be within a quarter of a mile. 

Recreation centers for adults, however, probably have an 
effective range of nearly a mile. 

HOW LONG DO THE CHILDREN STAY? 

Some are always much surprised and disappointed to learn 
that the children do not stay on the playground all the time 
it is open, but there would not be room enough for more than 
a tenth of the children if this actually took place. In Wash- 
ington we found from the school registration, that there were 
from four to six thousand children living within a half mile of 
most of our interior playgrounds. These playgrounds were sel- 
dom more than two acres in size. Four thousand children can- 
not play at once on a two-acre tract, unless they all play ring 
games or something of the kind. If any playground secures 
an average attendance of one tenth of the children who are 
living within the half-mile radius, it is doing much better than 
most playgrounds are doing now. The boy who is coming in 
to play basket ball for an hour three times a week may be 
getting all the exercise he needs, as well as ideals of sports- 
manship which will remake all his outside play and most of 



184 Practical Conduct of Play 

his life ; yet, so far as appearances go, he may hardly be at the 
playground at all. From this point of view, with a day of 
eight hours, six days a week, and an average attendance of a 
hundred children each hour, it would be possible for sixteen 
hundred children to have an abundance of good physical ex- 
ercise and yet have the playground seem almost deserted all 
the time. 

This fact of the comparatively brief stay of most children 
on the playground should give a quietus to the argument that 
organized play takes away the initiative of the child. Organi- 
zation gives the child the materials with which he can make 
hundreds of new combinations in his outside play. The child 
will always play outside the playgrounds as much as he does 
inside or more, from the very nature of the situation, — the 
impossibility of accommodating all the children on the play- 
grounds at one time, if they should actually make up their 
minds to have all their play there. The first year the play- 
grounds were open in New York, we sent out a questionnaire 
to all the directors asking them their opinion as to how long 
each child stayed. They nearly all said that the children came 
in the morning and stayed all day. The second summer, I 
stationed men with tally registers at a number of the play- 
grounds, and kept the record for a week. On one playground 
where the maximum attendance was eight hundred, forty- 
eight hundred children came in the afternoon. In all of the 
places where we kept record, the number entering was more 
than three, and in some cases it was six or seven, times the 
maximum number present at any one time. Most directors 
think this is not true of their playground, but it is more true 
than they realize. There always are certain children who 
make the playground their home, who take part in pretty 



The Playground Attendance 185 

much everything, and whom the director comes to know well. 
He is apt to estimate the attendance by these children and 
to overlook the shifting population constituting the rank and 
file. There are many children who come in only for special 
periods and activities. They come for the story period, or 
the industrial period, or the folk dancing, or the athletics, or 
basket ball, or something else, and go away as soon as this 
period is over. Probably they do not stay over an hour, but 
it may be quite long enough to get what they come for and to 
receive a valuable training. 

In all probability the children will always play in the street 
as much as they do in the playground or perhaps more, at 
least until we have far better and more adequate playgrounds 
with better trained leaders than we have at present. One of 
the greatest services that the playground has rendered to its 
community has been in giving incentives and ideals to the 
outside as well as the inside play. The playground that does 
not reform the street play of the children is doing only half 
its job. Perhaps even the smaller part of it. What it must 
really do to serve the actual needs is to create such an enthusi- 
asm for good games and for proper methods of play that these 
will go with the child through life. The child needs play out- 
side the playground as well as inside it, play that is unsuper- 
vised as well as play that is supervised. But in order that 
he may get the training that the playground is giving, he must 
play on one of its regular teams and compete in some of its 

athletics. 

WHO COME ? 

The playground is the most democratic place on earth, yet 
it is not absolutely democratic. Visitors to whom I was 
showing the East Side playgrounds would often say to me, 



1 86 Practical Conduct of Play 

" This is all very fine, but where are the poor children ? We 
want to see the playground where the poor children come. 
These children are all well dressed. They do not look Hke 
the children on the streets." It was perfectly true, they did 
not. Nevertheless they were often the same children. A 
playground has to set some standard of cleanliness and per- 
sonal appearance. We used to have wash basins and towels 
at each playground and scrub the dirty children or send them 
home to have their mothers do it. Consequently the children 
on the playgroimd were always reasonably clean and neat in 
appearance. They nearly all wore shoes. They seemed hke 
a different genus from the street Arab, though often it was 
only a seeming. It is necessary to have some standard in 
these things, for the reason that if the children feel that they 
are privileged to roll in the gutter each morning before they 
come in, the playground will have an evil appearance and 
reputation. The better class of parents who come and see 
it full of dirty and ill-looking children decide it is not the place 
for their children. It is necessary to set some standard also 
for the sake of discipline. The child who is dirty and ragged 
tends to live down to his appearance. The child who is well 
dressed and clean and feels himself a " Httle gentleman " 
tends to act the part. 

The standard that is set by the playground always tends 
to exclude the extremes. If the children come in as ragged 
and dirty as they choose, the street Arabs will come, and the 
children from the better-to-do families will stay away. If the 
standard is set too high, the poorer grade of children will be 
excluded, not perhaps because they could not come whole- 
some and clean, but because it would require too much effort 
for them or their mothers. 



The Playground Attendance 187 



REGISTRATION 

There are some playgrounds where the children are all 
registered. In some they receive special buttons. There are 
several important advantages in having this knowledge of just 
who the children are, though it is apt to consume a good deal 
of time. If a child is registered, he feels responsible. If his 
name and address are known, he realizes that it will not be 
safe for him to run off with the baseball or to cause undue 
annoyance. The registration also aids the teacher greatly in 
learning the names of the children, and this is an important 
advantage. Where a teacher has the playground the year 
round, it should be possible to get a reliable record of the names 
and addresses of the children who attend. When it is only 
a summer playground, this is difficult. Still a certain amount 
of registration is necessary. The teacher must know the name 
and address of every child who is playing on a regular team or 
who is entered for any contest, in order to know that the boy 
or girl is eligible to compete, and in order also that the child 
may be sent for if he does not appear at the time the contest 
is supposed to take place. In permanent playgrounds, it 
ought to be possible sooner or later to compare the playground 
attendance with the attendance at the schools, to fi.nd out just 
what percentage of the children are coming and who are 
staying away. This would reveal at once the actual weak- 
nesses. Are the big children coming and the Httle children 
staying away ? Then something more needs to be done for 
the little children. Are the boys coming and the girls staying 
away ? Then very likely the director is not using the best 
methods with the girls. Are the Irish coming and the Jews 
and Italians staying away? Then some investigation is 



1 88 Practical Conduct of Play 

needed. Are the children from one side of the playground 
coming and those from the other staying away? Then sec- 
tional or race feuds may be suspected. If the children do 
not wish to come, then there is something wrong with the play- 
ground, the director, or the children. If they dare not come, 
then the street gangs of the neighborhood need investigation. 
If their parents will not allow them to come on account of 
lessons or home industries, then this condition should be 
looked into. 

It does not follow because registration of the children coming 
to the playground is desirable, that the attendance should be 
kept in this way. In fact this is almost impossible. The 
attendance at the playground is difficult to keep track of. In 
the public school the children are all entered in the school 
register and the presence or absence of each child is recorded. 
This is possible because the same children come to the school 
each day. The attendance at the playground is very different. 
Within a half mile of most city playgrounds there are from two 
to ten thousand children. Probably nearly all of these chil- 
dren come to any successful playground more or less. A 
part of them will come every day. Some will come once or 
twice a week and some may come in only once or twice during 
the year. Out of the thousands of children living within half 
a mile of a playground, the average attendance probably will 
not be more than five hundred and may be much less. During 
three fourths of the day, it probably will be much less than 
this. The children who are present in the afternoon are in 
the main a different set from those who were there in the fore- 
noon ; the majority of children present to-day are not those 
who were present yesterday. Hence it becomes almost im- 
possible to keep a register of attendance in the way it is kept 



The Playground Attejidance 189 

at school. The amount of time and effort required to keep 
such a record is far beyond its value. There is no other way 
of keeping an accurate record of attendance ; and the accounts 
that are given in most systems are approximations. In New 
York there is an effort to keep track of the children entering 
the play centers by placing some one at the entrance with a 
tally register, but even this does not give a very accurate 
report, as many children keep running in and out. 

THE VALUE OF A RECORD OF ATTENDANCE 

An accurate record of attendance is the most valuable 
information in regard to any playground system. It tells 
whether or not it is reaching the children. It shows how 
much the playgrounds are costing per child. It is the evi- 
dence of an actual need, and it serves as the most satisfactory 
basis for an appeal for funds. Most playground systems that 
have a central office attempt to keep a record of attendance, 
but all these records are approximations. Those of different 
cities are made on different bases, hence they are not com- 
parable. It must be evident from what has gone before that 
all the children attending a playground during the day are 
never there at any one time. I doubt if half of them are ever 
there at once. In New York, during the early years, we were 
accustomed to count the children when there was the largest 
number present and then double it. In Washington we added 
one half to the attendance morning and afternoon and added 
the two together. There appeared in The Playground in the 
fall of 1909 a comparison of the attendance in certain Washing- 
ton playgrounds during one week of the fall with the attendance 
in the same week during the previous year, showing an enor- 
mous increase in attendance. Of course no conclusions can be 



190 Practical Conduct of Play 

drawn from a comparison of single weeks, for the reason that 
one may be rainy and the other pleasant. In the report it 
also appears that there had been a great increase in attendance 
during the summer. However, if we take into consideration 
that during the summer of 1909 the count was taken three 
times a day, and during the summer of 1908, it was taken 
twice, and allow for the rate of increase that had prevailed 
during the four previous summers, it appears that the rate 
of increase was slightly less during the summer of 1909 than 
it was during the previous summers. This may serve to show 
how misleading comparisons are likely to be while we use our 
present methods in securing statistics. In some cities, the 
morning attendance is not added to the afternoon attendance, 
so that where one city reports an average daily attendance of 
five thousand, and another city reports ten thousand, it may 
easily happen that the former has a larger actual attendance 
than the latter. 

In Chicago, the method employed is to count separately 
the children making use of each of the different facilities, as 
the swimming pool, the wading pool, the library, the club 
rooms, the showers, thus making ten counts in all. In this 
system it must be evident that the same child is often counted 
a number of times. This gives a large record, but it may be 
justified, because the child gets something valuable from each 
of the facilities used. 

TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF ATTENDANCE 

Thus far we have spoken of the attendance as though the 
important thing were to know how many different children 
were making use of the playground each day, and from a 
number of points of view this is so. This is the basis on which 



The Playground Attendance 191 

the efficiency of the playground can be best estimated. It is 
perhaps the best basis of appeal for funds. But for the super- 
visor the important thing is to know how many children there 
are on the playground on an average, and here there are 
difficulties, because the numbers are very different at different 
times of the day. At nine o'clock in the morning there may 
not be more than a dozen children present, and at seven 
o'clock in the evening there may be five hundred. How many 
directors does this playground need? It is obvious that no 
one person can successfully direct the sports of five hundred 
children in a variety of games, dances, and athletics. It is 
generally held that there should not be more than fifty or 
seventy-five children to a director. According to this standard 
one director may be sufficient for a large part of the forenoon, 
while the afternoon may require eight or ten people. In order 
to know how many directors such a playground needs, it is 
essential to know not how many different children are coming 
in, but how many children there are usually on the ground. 
This also is the basis on which the casual observer always 
estimates the attendance. If the directors are selected on 
this basis, it will give the director too few children at certain 
times of the day and too many at others, but it will be the 
most practical basis for the administration. Volunteer assist- 
ants should be secured for the time when the playgrounds 
are most crowded. 

AT THE MUNICIPAL PLAYGROUND DURING THE SCHOOL DAY 

It would seem in general that the municipal playground 
should not be kept open during the time when school is in 
session, as this must necessarily tempt children to stay away 
from school. But in actual fact, the municipal playgrounds 



192 Practical Conduct of Play 

of New York, at least, are kept open and are fairly well sup- 
plied with children from the schools that are running on half 

time. 

AT THE SCHOOL GROUND AFTER SCHOOL 

Probably, on the whole, the school playground is better 
attended after school hours during the pleasanter months of 
the school year than it is during the summer. It is cooler and 
pleasanter to play at this time, and the children who have 
been in school during the day need very much the opportunity 
to play after school hours. All school grounds should be kept 
open from the close of school until supper time, at least, and 
on Saturdays, under competent direction, and during a con- 
siderable part of this time they usually have a very good 
attendance indeed. 

BUILDING UP THE ATTENDANCE 

It may appear that if the city furnishes the playgrounds, 
the children ought to furnish the attendance, and that the 
matter should rest there, and this will be true to a certain 
extent. Without any agitation of the subject the children 
will come to the playgrounds as frequently as their parents 
will go to the parks, probably more frequently, but this will 
not be often enough for them to get the benefit. During the 
first years in New York such crowds of children sought admis- 
sion that the playgrounds were often filled with the first rush 
and there was no room for play. I have seen 500 children 
waiting for half an hour before opening time in front of the 
gate of a playground that was only 50 to 100 feet in dimensions. 

In some playgrounds the gate would be opened only for a 
few moments to let some children in and then closed to prevent 
overcrowding. I know of no other place, however, where 



The Playground Attendance 193 

this has been so, and in most cases the problem of building up 
the attendance is the most fundamental one the playground 
has to face. 

In other fields we no longer provide facilities and leave it to 
the unguided choice of the people whether they will use them 
or not. We provide the public schools and we require the chil- 
dren to attend. We furnish the public library, and the skillful 
Hbrarian manages to advertise it and its books in a hundred 
ways. Even the city park departments are coming to see 
that they must promote the use of the facilities that they 
furnish. The playground is no exception. Very many of 
the children in the neighborhood of any playground are only 
occasional visitors who do not come often enough to get its 
training, except as it is imparted to them by other children 
who come more regularly. If all the existing playgrounds in 
most cities were full to overflowing all of the time, the chil- 
dren within their radius of influence would not be spending 
more than an hour and a half or two hours there. 

If, then, with our small number of playgrounds, the play- 
grounds are nearly empty much of the time and never so full 
as they can comfortably be, we may be sure, either that very 
many children are not coming at all, or that those who do 
come are spending only a short time there. Very likely both 
of these conclusions are true, and it will be the first important 
work of the playground director to build up his attendance. 
The first thing to do at a new playground is to have a formal 
opening with an address by the mayor and other ceremonies. 
This will probably be largely attended by the people of the 
neighborhood, who will thus learn directly about the project, 
and accounts will be given in the papers, which will reach many 
more. In the second place, if the playground is to be open 



194 Practical Conduct of Play 

only for the summer time, it is well to have the opening an- 
nounced in all the public schools of the neighborhood, and the 
children invited to come. If the playground is carried on dur- 
ing at least a part of the school year, various class teams in 
baseball, volley ball, and basket ball should be organized at the 
schools to play in the playgrounds after school and during the 
summer. Some mornings the director can make a few calls 
before the children get to the playground in large numbers, and 
talk with the parents about what is being attempted. Not only 
is this likely to increase the attendance, but it is sure to give 
the director some interesting sidelights on his own work as well. 
It is a good thing to keep something running in the papers. 
Playground contests that call out the parents and the irregular 
ones and set the children to talking are always excellent means 
of increasing the attendance. But after all the personality 
of the teacher and his ability to organize at the playground 
the things that the children Hke to do is probably the largest 
element. Conversely, as has already been said, the attend- 
ance of the children is one of the best standards to meas- 
ure the value of the teacher. The children who do not 
come, or who wander in only to wander out again, do not get 
much benefit. On the financial side, if a teacher who has an 
attendance of one hundred children per day receives two 
dollars per day, the cost will be two cents per child. Another 
teacher who secures an attendance of two hundred children 
per day might be paid four dollars a day, without the city's 
being at any greater expense per child. But the attractive- 
ness of the playground must have been doubled in order to 
induce twice as many children to come or the same nimiber 
to stay twice as long. They are probably getting twice as 
much out of it, so that it is now very likely worth four cents a 



The Playground Attendance 195 

day to them instead of two. Four cents a day for two hundred 
children would be eight dollars a day for the second teacher. 
I believe there is often quite as much difference as this in the 
value of two teachers who secure results of this kind. 

COMPARISON OF THE NUMBERS USING THE PLAYGROUNDS 
AND THE PARKS 

There has not infrequently been criticism of the small 
attendance at the playgrounds, but there probably has not 
been a play system in the country which has not had a larger 
proportional attendance than has the city park system. In 
general a two-acre playground will probably have more children 
in it on an average each day than a two-hundred- acre park 
will have people. There are scarcely any parks in the country, 
except those of South Chicago, in which park and playground 
are one, whose attendance approaches that of any well-con- 
ducted playground which lies well within the city. We had 
a playground of an acre and three quarters in Washington 
which probably had larger numbers present every day during 
the season than the sixteen hundred acres of Rock Creek Park ; 
and the same would probably be true of many playgrounds 
throughout the country. Although the parks were more ex- 
pensive in the first place, have cost a great deal more to put 
them in condition, and often have more spent upon them for 
maintenance, yet their small attendance excites no comment. 
Consequently the criticism of even the comparatively small 
number of children attending a cheap, unbeautified, poorly 
equipped, and insufficiently manned playground, such as 
those found in most cities, is scarcely justified. Nevertheless 
we cannot consider such an attendance satisfactory and we 
must seek to secure the presence of every child. 



196 Practical Conduct of Play 



THE SOLUTION OF THE ATTENDANCE PROBLEM 

In Germany and England, for the most part, the children 
are required to attend the playgrounds just as they are re- 
quired to attend their classes in school, and it is believed that 
no system of voluntary attendance will ever solve the problem. 
Every child requires for his health and physical development 
from one to two hours of open-air play a day, but none of our 
municipal playgrounds the country over are securing an hour's 
attendance from more than ten to twenty per cent of the 
children, and most of them are doing far less than this. More- 
over, the ten or twenty per cent who are coming are the vigor- 
ous motor-minded children who need the play the least, while 
the weakly, studious children who need the playgrounds the 
most are the ones who are staying away. There seems to be 
no answer to this situation except to put play into the program 
of the school, as they have done in Gary, where for the first 
six grades the children have from two to two and one half 
hours a day of organized play in their daily program and one 
hour a day for the following five years. 



CHAPTER XII 

A CURRICULUM OF PLAY 

The games, athletics, and folk dances are the course of 
study of the playgrounds. They determine, for the most 
part, the sort of training that is to be given and the sort of 
results that are to be obtained. But thus far we have left 
the selection of the games to chance and the making of the 
rules to the machine companies. There is a German curric- 
ulum of play, and New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and sev- 
eral other of our great cities have a suggestive curriculum 
adapted to the grades. These are, however, suggestive only, 
in the main, and the fact is that the materials for an authori- 
tative curriculum of play are not anywhere at hand. There 
are, however, several games, as baseball and volley ball, for in- 
stance, in regard to which there would be little dispute. But 
the best that can be done at present is probably to adopt a 
minimum curriculum and to add to this from time to time 
other games as they are developed or introduced from other 
countries or sections. 

THE SELECTION OF GAMES 

It must be obvious to any one that the games which children 
play have very different values. Singing games that have 
been played for some time on the streets of New York are apt 
to take up obscene and senseless expressions, and in general 
to express the social attitude of the street Arab. Tops and 

197 



198 Practical Conduct of Play 

marbles obviously have not the same social or physical value 
as baseball or football. Pitching pennies and shooting craps 
are vicious in themselves and lead directly to gambling. 
There is a perfect scale in play, running from the lowest to 
the highest values, and it is obviously essential that if the 
playground is to receive public support the higher values of 
play rather than the lower ones shall be sought. It is also 
evident that with this end in view the selection of the games 
cannot be left to chance or entirely to the whim of the children. 

It ought to be possible at the present time to make a fairly 
authoritative choice of games adapted to outdoor play for 
little children, because the kindergartners have been studying 
this subject for a generation and have been practicing many 
of the games. 

The world to-day is everywhere becoming ^cosmopolitan, 
and we sit down to a table at which the fruit comes perhaps 
from Italy or Florida, the cereal from Japan, the meat from 
our western plains, the salad from somewhere in the far South, 
and the dessert is compounded from simples brought from all 
parts of the world. The United States Department of Agri- 
culture has during the last few years sent men through Siberia, 
Mongolia, and Turkestan to find varieties of alfalfa suited to 
growth in our own Northwest. Probably the games of chil- 
dren have been less carefully studied with a view to their 
educational value than most other ^elements in our civilization, 
and the best ones should be gathered from the entire world 
as the beginning of a play curriculum. 

The individual director on the playgrounds, however, has 
every opportunity to select from the games that the children 
play those that are worth while rather than those of little 
value. 



A Curriculum of Play 199 

THE INVENTION OF GAMES 

This may seem to demand very unusual ability and, in fact, 
to require genius to be successful ; but the children themselves 
are constantly inventing new games as the circumstances de- 
mand. New games are very much needed to-day to fit certain 
definite conditions, as for instance, games for the street, games 
for the door yard, games for the classroom, the gymnasium, 
and the small school yard. Basket ball was worked out almost 
as a mathematical problem by Dr. Gulick and Dr. Naismith 
at Springfield, and it has gone all over the world. We may 
not suppose that the existing games have exhausted the pos- 
sibiHties in play development. In the small book Flay by 
Emmett D. Angell there are thirty- two games invented by 
the author. There ought to be a game for every age, which 
would do for the children of that age what baseball is doing 
for adolescents. 

THE EVOLUTION OF GAMES 

By far the most important means, however, of framing a 
satisfactory curriculum of play must be the evolution of the 
games themselves. This modification or evolution is going 
on wherever children are playing, as any one can see who will 
observe how any standard game, such as prisoners' base, is 
played in different sections of the country. Many of these 
changes made by children are improvements in certain direc- 
tions, but as they are not taken up and standardized, they 
are not passed on. We have a good example of how an elabor- 
ate and splendid game can be evolved from a rather simple 
one in the way baseball has been developed from rounders in 
the last fifty years. 

At the present time, apparently, the people of the United 



200 Practical Conduct of Play 

States have intrusted to A. G. Spalding and Brothers the 
making of the standard rules for all of our children's games, 
and these games are elaborated and published for the purpose 
of selling apparatus, as one of the rules which is always in- 
cluded is that the A. G. Spalding equipment shall be used. 
Rules so made are much too elaborate for playground use. 
They presuppose a grandstand, and are designed largely to 
produce a spectacle rather than play. In Germany there is 
a large technical committee of the National Playground 
Association whose duty it is to edit and publish the rules of 
the children's games, and more than a million copies have been 
issued during the last twenty years. We ought to have a 
group of sociological, psychological, and physical training 
experts who might go over with the greatest care all of the 
common games of our children, with a view to improving the 
good points and minimizing the weak ones in these games and 
modifying the rules so that the game may evolve into a higher 
form in something of the same way that baseball came from 
rounders. 

There ought to be somewhere a play institute in charge of 
experts who could try out new games upon the children and 
study and modify old ones. The elaboration of a satisfactory 
curriculum of play must necessarily be the work of years, 
perhaps of a generation or more, but under such an arrange- 
ment, there should be constant improvement in the games 
that we have. Compared with the development of a fine 
new game such as baseball, basket ball, or volley ball, the 
writing of a textbook is a trifling matter, and surely such a 
study might well have the cooperation of some of our great 
social foundations which are interested in the welfare of 
children. 



A Curriculum of Play 201 

The playground director has constant opportunities to 
modify games so as to improve them, and this modification 
is going on more or less everywhere, though for the most part 
these improvements are not passed on. 

For many of our commonest games, such as volley ball, 
tether ball, or croquet, it is well worth while at present for 
the playground associations to get out their own rules in a 
much simplified form, post these up on the playgrounds, and 
distribute them among the children. 

THE TEACHING OF GAMES 

The same laws of pedagogy apply to the teaching of play 

that apply to any other kind of teaching. The game should 

be taught thoroughly and the children should play it until 

they have exhausted its possibiKties or become tired of it 

before another game is introduced. If several games are 

taught at the same time, the probability is that the children 

will not learn to play any of them well. The director should 

always be an expert in the rules and teach them as a part of 

the game itself. This is the only way in which the child will 

ever become really skillful, and it is also the best training in 

obedience to law that can be given to him. Any skill that 

the director himself may have in the game will help to make it 

popular and will also add to his personal influence among the 

children. 

ROTATION IN GAMES 

It is a curious fact that games, like vegetables, have their 
seasons, and that it is very difficult to make them popular 
at any other time. Tops and marbles appear on the streets of 
New York at about the same time every year, run their season 
of two or three weeks, and disappear as completely as though 



202 Practical Conduct of Play 

they had been exported to another country. The wise direc- 
tor must watch the way the wind is blowing, and organize the 
games which the children wish to play at that time. 

A TENTATIVE MINIMUM CURRICULUM 

It would be exceedingly hazardous for any one to attempt 
offhand to make up for the playgrounds of the country a 
curriculum of play, or even a minimum curriculum, but there 
seem to be a few games which have been fairly well worked 
out which might be accepted in all playgrounds until better 
ones are found, and added to as time brings other games to 
light. These games which I shall give are probably not more 
than one quarter of the number which should be used in any 
playground. 

As has been said, it ought to be possible for the kinder- 
gartners to make out an authoritative curriculum of games for 
their children. The only one, however, that is universally 
played in the playgrounds, in my observation, is Soldier Boy. 

For the children a little older. Cat and Mouse, Jacob and 
Rachel, Whip Tag, Cross Tag, Slap Jack, Duck on a Rock, 
Bull in the Ring, Pull Away, Prisoners' Base, Three Deep, 
Drop the Handkerchief, Captain Ball, and Dodge Ball are 
popular nearly everywhere. Not all of these games have any 
great value. Many of them need to be developed from their 
present state before they can give just that sort of training 
which children of this age period demand. 

Baseball, Indoor Baseball, Long Ball, Tennis, Volley Ball, 
Hockey, and Soccer are games which are popular wherever 
they are tried and should be played by all boys. Tether Ball, 
Basket Ball, and American Rugby should be electives in this 
series. 



A Curriculufn of Play 203 

The older girls should play Indoor Baseball, Volley Ball, 
Tennis, Croquet, Tether Ball, and Hockey; Basket Ball 
should be an elective. 

Any one who is interested in taking charge of the play of 
the children should, of course, provide himself with one or two 
good books of games, such as Games for the Playground, 
Home J School, and Gymnasium by Jessie Bancroft; Play 
by Emmett D. Angell; Education by Plays and Games 
by George Johnson; and The Teaching of Play by Wilbur 
Bo wen. These books contain over four hundred different 
games, many of them with diagrams and with such explicit 
directions that there is no difficulty in learning to play them 
from the instructions given. Therefore, I shall not attempt 
to give detailed rules for them. 

Basket Ball, Volley Ball, and Indoor Baseball. — Until 
very lately all of the games for our older children have required 
a large amount of space, while often the grounds that were 
available were very small, so the games and the grounds did 
not ht together. Of late, however, we have developed or im- 
ported several good games which are much more economical 
of space than baseball or football and enable many more 
children to play on a small amount of ground than was pos- 
sible under the old conditions. There are three vigorous, 
highly organized games which seem to be adapted to use in the 
playgrounds nearly everywhere, and they also have this very 
great advantage that they have no seasonal rotation but are 
played during the entire year. 

Basket ball was the first of these games to come into prom- 
inence and is now more generally played, probably, around 
the world than any of the others. Basket ball is played both 
indoors and outdoors on a comparatively small ground. It is, 



204 Practical Conduct of Play 

the most vigorous game that we have, and herein lies its some- 
what pecuHar danger. Any man who goes on the football 
team has to be a strong man, and he must also have had a 
large amount of preliminary training. But young girls often 
become members of a basket ball team without ever having 
played strenuous games before. They do not reaHze that 
basket ball is more vigorous than football and that the strain 
involved is greater or that it is more dangerous because of the 
nature of the strain. A broken leg will soon mend, but a 
strained heart does not recover so easily. In football there is 
much time out when the players can rest, but in a fast game of 
basket ball, especially where boys' rules are used, the struggle 
is almost continuous from the beginning to the close. It is 
impossible to estimate how many girls are injured by playing 
basket ball too long and too hard in the beginning, but I have 
consulted many of the principal physical trainers of the coun- 
try on this matter, and they are practically a unit in their 
belief that a large number of injuries result. Hence, while 
basket ball is a good game for the playgrounds, it should not 
be the first game played by girls, and it should not be played 
by boys' rules ; when the team is just beginning, the halves 
should always be made short, not more than five or ten minutes. 
Probably not more than half the girls of basket ball age ought 
to play it. 

Indoor baseball is probably now being played by more 
people than is the national game itself, though it does not 
lend itself to the making of a spectacle and does not attract 
much attention where the games are held. It has many 
pecuHar advantages. The rules are nearly the same as those 
of the large game. Hence all the boys have an almost heredi- 
tary knowledge of them, and the game is borne along by an 




Volley Ball. Delegates to the Fifth Annual Meeting of the 
Playground Association of America at Play, Washington, D.C. 




Chelsea Park Playground, New York City. 



A Curriculuni of Play 205 

enthusiasm developed in the outdoor game. Baseball is not 
adapted to a crowded playground, because the impact of the 
hard ball may cause a serious injury, and because the game 
takes too much room. Baseball, also, has several other very 
great disadvantages for playground use as compared with 
indoor baseball. Boys do not begin to play baseball much 
before they are twelve or thirteen years of age, while they will 
begin to play indoor baseball at eight or nine. Baseball is 
played only during the spring and summer, while indoor base- 
ball is played during the entire year. The young man stops 
playing baseball by the time he is twenty-five, while he may 
continue to play indoor baseball with pleasure until he is sixty 
or seventy. Leisure time is increasing rapidly all over the 
country and there is a great need of games that the children 
will learn to play young and will continue to play until they 
are old, in order that they may get the exercise they need and 
be kept from the temptation of idle hands. Baseball, too, 
is played by boys alone, while indoor baseball is played nearly 
as much by girls as by boys. Moreover, it can be played 
in almost any playground, by day or by electric light; it can 
also be played in the gymnasium. 

Volley ball seems to me on the whole the best game that we 
have. It can be played in any playground, during every 
month of the year ; it is played by girls nearly as much as by 
boys ; it requires a smaller space than any other vigorous game 
that takes a large number of players, as an acre of ground 
provides for thirty-five volley ball courts and from four 
hundred to seven hundred players. It is a game which chil- 
dren will begin to play at eight or nine and may continue to 
play until sixty-five or seventy ; and it also has the somewhat 
peculiar advantage that it is the best corrective we have of the 



2o6 Practical Conduct of Play 

stooped postures of the schoolroom as it compels the players 
to put their shoulders back and throw out their chests. Basket 
ball tends to rough house and quarrels, but volley ball places 
the players on opposite sides of the net where there is no per- 
sonal contact. Fouls are few and easily decided. Like all 
new games, however, volley ball must be well taught in order 
to make it popular. As soon as the children acquire some skill 
and can pass the ball back and forth several times without its 
striking the ground, it becomes very interesting both for 
spectators and players ; but there is apt to be a preHminary 
stage, when the ball is seldom returned or returned only once 
or twice, during which the game may drag. 



CHAPTER XIII 

TEAM GAMES 

If any one is asked "What is a team game?" he will 
probably reply, " A game that is played by a team, such as 
baseball, football, and basket ball." Superficially, his answer 
will be entirely correct, but in a truer sense, there is no game 
that is necessarily a team game for the player. A team game 
is one in which the various members, forgetting the oppor- 
tunities for individual distinction, blend their individualities 
into a new unity, and play the game as a unit for a common 
victory. The team game requires a group consciousness, 
loyalty, and leadership. It is the highest form of play and one 
of the highest forms of human activity. It represents the first 
beginnings of the state in which society becomes an organism, 
the state which sociologists and biologists are so fond of writ- 
ing about as the ultimate goal of the race, where individuals 
will function as cells in the race brain and there shall be in 
each a consciousness of the whole. 

The team is essentially a primitive form of tribal or political 
organization. It represents almost perfectly the tribal life, 
which is in the race the stage that follows savagery and is essen- 
tially the period of human youth. So we find in the child, 
in general, the beginnings of team organization with the be- 
ginning of puberty. At this time boys begin spontaneously 
to form themselves into gangs on the street and to play team 
games. Boys will play baseball before they are thirteen, 

207 



2o8 Practical Conduct of Play 

but they will seldom organize permanent teams much before 
this or play for the glory of the team instead of for them- 
selves. Young boys seldom get the group consciousness. It 
is easy to play baseball and seek only to make the successful 
hit or slide yourself, largely ignoring the team in your play, 
and this is what young boys are apt to do. 

Boys left to themselves never play these games much until 
about thirteen. In England, however, cricket and football 
are made compulsory for the boys of the preparatory schools 
who are only nine or ten years old. But one cannot help 
wondering whether they secure real team play from these 
little boys. Mr. Walter Wood, in his recent book on " Play 
in Education," speaks of this requirement for these little boys 
as " absurd." It seems likely, at any rate, that if they secure 
real team play, it must be largely a matter of training rather 
than of spontaneous development. 

Dr. Gulick, in his studies of the plays of boys and girls, finds 
that girls have never played organized or team games. Women 
have never had a game which was for them what baseball and 
football are for men. When girls go into a team game, such as 
basket ball, it is much harder to teach them to play for the 
team than it is the boys. His analysis and explanation of 
these facts are these : Cooperation and loyalty are masculine 
virtues, and boys inherit the organizing impulse while girls do 
not. These virtues were born into the race at the time when 
the primitive barbarians were driven to unite into families 
and tribes for the sake of protection. Those who had this 
organizing impulse and the loyalty which was necessary to 
maintain the organization were strong with the combined 
strength of the tribe and survived in the battle of life. The 
women, however, remained at home. They did not need to 



Team Games 209 

organize, and so the girls do not even to-day inherit the im- 
pulse. Woman has developed loyalty to her home, but not to 
the state. She has had personal virtue but not civic virtue. 
With the coming of the suffrage and the industrial employ- 
ment of women, it becomes more and more necessary that 
women shall be able to stand together for common ends, and 
hence that girls shall play team games. This is of course 
necessary for physical and social reasons, as well as civic and 
industrial ones. Every girl should play on a volley ball and 
an indoor baseball team at least and on a basket ball team 
also if she is strong enough. It is always more difficult to 
organize teams of girls who will stick than it is teams of boys ; 
but it is so necessary for their welfare on the physical, social, 
and moral side, that every effort should be made to get every 
girl who is old enough on some permanent team. 

THE TRAINING OF THE TEAM 

Every real team must have at least three characteristics : a 
group spirit and loyalty toward the team as a whole, friendship 
toward the members of the team, and leadership. The scrub 
team is not a real team, it matters not which game is played. 
It seldom, if ever, develops a group spirit or friendship or 
leadership. The members are usually playing an individual 
game almost as much as though they were playing singles in 
tennis instead of baseball. The reasons for this are apparent. 
The scrub team is chosen up for the occasion from the mis- 
cellaneous crowd who are present. It has no future, as it is 
dissolved as soon as the game is over. There is no reason why 
the boy should be loyal to it. He is not much interested in its 
record. The members of the team are probably too strange 
to each other to develop a group consciousness in one after- 
p 



2IO Practical Conduct of Play 

noon. The scrub team does not give any of those fundamental 
forms of training which the team game should give. 

The Formation of Friendships. — The strongest friendships 
of Hfe are apt to be for the boys who played on the same foot- 
ball or baseball team with us during our high school or college 
days ; if only these teams were reasonably permanent, and 
we played together for two or three seasons. The group 
consciousness of the play cements the most intimate friend- 
ships. The team furnishes the best possible opportunity for 
the developing of leadership. Probably there is no other 
training being given in the schools or the playgrounds that 
fits so well for political and social success as leadership in 
athletics, and especially on the football or other teams. It 
develops the same sort of traits that society, business, and 
the social movements everywhere demand to-day. The man 
must be willing to follow leadership and to work with the 
group. 

Obedience to Law. — I have always been accustomed to 
say to my playground directors, " You must teach the children 
that the rules of volley ball and basket ball are a part of the 
moral law.'' In fact it is really so. Children are not much 
concerned with the laws of the city. They do not expect to 
rob stores or burn buildings. The law which is most vital 
to them is the law of the game, and they who play games 
without regarding the rules or who purposely evade them 
are getting the most fundamental training in lawlessness 
that it is possible to receive. The scrub play of the vacant 
lots never considers the rules. There is no one to teach them 
in the first place and no one to enforce them when they are 
known. It develops no sportsmanship which would feel 
social compulsion. Hence we find that the vacant-lot play is 



Team Games 211 

apt to be a series of wrangles and quarrels. When the children 
come into the playgrounds to take part in the contests, we 
generally have to teach the rules, because the children have 
so fundamentally disregarded them that they have forgotten 
what they are, if, indeed, they ever knew them. As soon as a 
team is permanently organized and begins to hold a series of 
contests, it becomes necessary for its members to learn the 
rules and to abide by them for the most part at least. There 
are now three new factors that tend toward a closer regard for 
the rules. They are the reputation of the team, the decisions 
of the umpire, and a growing consciousness that breaking the 
rules is unsportsmanlike. This is a fundamental training in 
obedience to law which is needed by every child, for the lack 
of it leads to many excesses of lawlessness and delinquency 
in our cities. 

I do not mean that the games are always to be umpired by 
the director. This will often be necessary in the beginning in 
order to set the standard, but the children should early be 
taught to umpire their own games and to accept the decisions 
of one of their peers. Or it may be even better for them to 
learn to play finally without an umpire, depending on the 
honesty of each player to live up to the rules, — to be a law 
unto himself, as he is supposed to be in life. 

Loyalty. — The development of loyalty is usually held to be 
the most important service rendered by the team game. As 
has been said, the team is a form of social organization similar 
to the primitive tribe. It was through the tribe that loyalty 
came into the world. It was there that it developed its 
greatest intensity; for the tribe might at any time require 
a man to give his life to save its chieftain or preserve its 
secrets. Loyalty was absolutely essential to the tribal sur- 



212 Practical Conduct of Play 

vival, for the tribe lacking it was inevitably annihilated or 
enslaved by one which was loyal. 

When a boy becomes a member of a permanent team which 
takes part in a series of contests, he plays at first as he did on 
the vacant lot, but he soon begins to discover that things are 
now different. A long hit or a daring run may not be what is 
wanted. The judgment on his play is a social judgment. It 
is estimated not on the basis of its individual excellence, but 
by its effect on the success of the team. The boy must come 
out and practice when he wants to go fishing. He must bat 
out in order that the man on third may run in. Many a 
time he must sacrifice himself to the team. This type of 
loyalty to the group is the same thing that we call good 
citizenship as applied to the city, that we call patriotism as 
appHed to the country. The team game is undoubtedly the 
best training school for these civic virtues, but it must be a 
permanent team. Every boy should have this training all 
through the teens. It is more difficult in the public play- 
ground as now organized than it is in connection with the 
school, but it is not impossible. 

Professor Royce has said that loyalty is our most funda- 
mental virtue, more basal in the realm of ethics than even love. 
But he says we must have not merely a loyalty to our particular 
organization, but loyalty to the spirit of loyalty as well. We 
must respect the loyalty of our opponents, and not despise and 
seek to injure them because they are on the other side. Such a 
respect is deep-seated in the heart of man, for he always despises 
the traitor. The loyalty of a gang of thieves to one another is 
a virtue, though all the other principles they hold may be evil. 

Arousing the Intellect. — The team game is undoubtedly 
the greatest intellectual stimulus that ever comes to a boy. 



Tean^ Gaines 213 

and this is especially true of the matched game between play- 
grounds or schools. Never at any other time in hfe may 
distinction be won in so brief a time, never is the reward so 
instantly given, and so general. The boy has not only his 
own interest in the game, his own desire to win, to urge him 
on to do his best, but he has also the desire of all the other 
members of the team which he represents, and the social 
compulsion of which he always feels. And beyond the team 
are the other members of the playground and of the neighbor- 
hood. There is always the possibility that he may get his 
picture in the paper, or have something said about his prowess 
in its columns ; and this is glory such as even the Presidency 
might hardly equal in later life. A successful play means 
that he will not only be known and applauded at once by the 
other members of the team and by the spectators, but that he 
will very Kkely become a little hero in the community of 
which he is a part. Probably there is no other place where 
distinction may be earned in so brief a time, nor where poor 
accomplishment receives such immediate and unmerciful 
criticism. " All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," 
and if there is anything that can arouse a stupid intellect to 
action, it is the match game, where rivalry is keen and the 
contest is close. 

HOW PERMANENT TEAMS MAY BE ORGANIZED 

The English have a simple method of solving this problem, 
by putting the boys of certain classes or dormitories into cer- 
tain teams and keeping them there. They thus get every boy 
into some team and a team that is reasonably permanent. 
This method has never been tried in America. It cannot 
well be used on the playground. The common method is to 



214 Practical Conduct of Play 

pick out the nine best players in baseball and organize them 
into the baseball team for the playground. This is probably 
the worst possible method. It gets all the best players into 
one group, so that there is no one to play against them. It 
secures one team to a ground where there ought probably to be 
a dozen. It would be much better to take the nine best 
players and let each one of them organize a team. This 
would allow the nine best players each to coach eight other 
players. But this will not be found a very satisfactory method 
either. There are three factors that enter into the permanent 
team ; they are friendship, leadership, and loyalty. A per- 
manent team cannot be organized without these, and its 
permanence will be in proportion to the degree to which these 
are developed. 

Friendship. — So far as possible, the team should be made 
up in the first place of a group of friends. A group of inhar- 
monious elements will soon break up. A boy will not play 
regularly with a group of boys whom he does not like. The 
method that will best secure harmony in the beginning will 
often be to let certain gangs, if there are such, organize into 
baseball teams or to have the boys from a certain block, 
school, church, or scout patrol form a team. It does not 
matter what the group is so long as its members know and 
like each other. Having secured the preliminary organization, 
there should be every effort to strengthen the friendship of the 
members by having the boys (or girls) meet together at vari- 
ous times, as clubs, etc. If it is possible for them to have a 
small spread occasionally, this is a good thing to do. 

Loyalty. — There are a great many ways in which the 
loyalty of the^ members of a team may be strengthened. The 
first and simplest step in the process is to give the club a name. 



Team Games 215 

A club never gets an individuality or becomes a real entity 
until it is named ; let it become the Columbian Baseball Team, 
and from that moment it has an individuality. Anything 
that 'Will serve to distinguish the club will tend to create loyalty 
to it. In the Civil War the North and the South were loyal 
to the Blue and the Gray. A club uniform is one of the surest 
ways to create loyalty. If the club cannot afford a uniform, 
a club cap or ribbon or button will do. It is very desirable 
for them to have some sort of insignia. A celluloid button 
with the club name and some design upon it can be secured 
for about ten cents. To develop loyalty to a club, it is almost 
necessary to make the members proud of it. If they can be 
led to spruce up a little, to take pride in their appearance, that 
will always be an advantage. One of the best ways to develop 
loyalty is through the record of the club. It is wise to keep 
the score of all the games it plays, to post this score on the 
bulletin board, and to publish it from time to time. Probably 
the 'most effective method, however, is competition. If Eng- 
land had declared war on the United States about 1858 or 
1859, the North and the South would undoubtedly have joined 
hands to fight a foreign foe and the Civil War might have 
been averted. Schools go on, ordinarily, without any school 
feeling until a series of contests are started with other schools, 
and then, within a short time, loyalty burns up so brightly 
that it may even need to be restrained. 

Leadership. — It is well to strengthen leadership as much as 
possible by putting responsibility upon the captains. If the 
captain feels that it is up to him, he takes a great deal more 
interest. It needs the pretty constant service of a good captain 
to get members out to practice as much as they need to, to 
have them master the rules and the difi&cult points of the game. 



2 1 6 Practical Conduct of Play 

To the end of making the captain feel this responsibility, he 
should be consulted frequently. He should be asked to see 
after the appearance and attendance and eligibility of his 
men. He should be shown how to coach them as much as it 
may be possible for him to do. This responsibility is good 
for the captain, if he is of the right type. It secures results, 
and it greatly lightens the burdens of the director. It is wise, 
as a rule, to let the team elect its own captain. 

ADVANTAGES OF PERMANENT TEAMS 

Besides the fact that the permanent teams secure much 
better training for the children, they are of great help to 
the director as well. They form a corps of known, reliable 
children who can be depended on. They can be made moni- 
tors or placed in charge of apparatus. The baseball that is 
given out to a scrub team is likely not to return, but perma- 
nent teams may be trusted with supplies, and often they may 
be made umpires or coaches for new teams that are just being 
organized. Because permanent teams are so great an ad- 
vantage, it is often worth while to give them certain privileges 
in the use of suppHes, etc. The team game is the highest 
form of play, and the permanence of the team is its most 
valuable feature. The existence of a large number of perma- 
nent teams is one of the best measures of the success of a play- 
ground. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES 

The playground at first was conceived of as merely a place 
where children should go to play, but with time it has taken on 
one feature after another until it has become a very compli- 
cated affair, and contains many activities which are not usually 
considered as play. There are many who have felt, conse- 
quently, that the name '' playground " should be given up 
for " play school," or some similar title. There is some 
justification for such a designation, but we must remember 
that all play is essentially educational, and that to call the 
playground a play school really adds nothing to the signifi- 
cance of the term. 

ATHLETICS 

In playgrounds such as those of the South Park, Chicago, 
there are many young people who are in the late teens or the 
twenties, and there is opportunity for all the college athletics ; 
but in most of the smaller cities and playgrounds there are no 
such facihties, and the children are for the most part from 
eight to fourteen years of age. With children of this age there 
is little occasion for such events as the shot put, the hammer 
throw, the discus, or even the pole vault. These events are 
not suited to young children and they are too dangerous in 
crowded playgrounds. The forms that are universally appHc- 
able are the short races, jumping and chinning, in short, the 
same events that are represented in the Standard Test of the 
Public School Athletic League. 

217 



2i8 Practical Condtui of Play 

It is no part of the work of the playground to produce 
record breakers ; rather should it seek to train all to a moder- 
ate accomplishment. It seems likely that the best training 
for any muscle is the exercise that fills it full of blood rather 
than waste products, and then allows it to rest and assimilate 
what it has received. There can be Httle doubt that this is the 
wise method for children. By themselves they always exer- 
cise in that way. Long races have no place. The Marathon 
runs probably do more harm than good for nearly all the 
participants. Those who encourage them seem to have 
forgotten the first one. For it must be remembered that the 
Greek runner who brought the news of the great battle that 
saved Greece, reached the city, shouted " Nike," victory, and 
fell dead in his tracks. In the last Olympic Contest in London, 
the Italian runner fell at the entrance to the stadium and was 
unable to rise. For young children, races of more than a hun- 
dred yards are to be used with great care if at all. The short 
races are the ones that are universally appHcable, and they 
are also the ones in which the children are most interested. 
I doubt if the interest is ever so keen in foot races at any 
later date as it is when the children are about ten or eleven 
years old. For most children under fifteen or sixteen the 
hundred-yard dash should be the extreme distance. 

In the short races, for children under thirteen, there is not 
much difference in the accomplishment of girls and boys. 
The girls should be encouraged to take part no less than the 
boys. They must have these athletics before they put on 
their long dresses, if they are to have them at all, and they 
need the training. As the girls get less encouragement at 
home and in the community generally, they require so much 
the more on the playground. 



Miscellaneous Activities 219 

The children are apt to think at first that the way to train 
for a hundred-yard dash or other similar event is to run it 
just as often as they can ; but record runners never do this. 
They spend fifteen minutes to half an hour each day practic- 
ing the starts and running fifteen to twenty-five yards, and 
once or twice a week they run the hundred. Children need 
to be shown the diJEferent starts, and cautioned not to look 
back for their competitors as they run. Nor should they 
slow up as they approach the string as nearly all of them tend 
to do at first, acting as though they were running into a stone 
wall. 

If the children enter the more strenuous events such as 
basket ball or the hundred-yard dash or the two-twenty, 
they should have their hearts examined. If all these children 
are assembled at the playground at some one time, a young 
doctor is often wilHng to come in and do this without a fee. 

DANCING 

Probably the most popular activities for the older girls in 
most of the playgrounds are the folk dances. These are all 
survivals from earlier conditions and represent primitive 
industries, festivals, and religious observances. Most of them 
are very vigorous and the rhythm tends to create a common 
spirit. Often they are performed in the costumes of the 
people amongst whom they originated, so that they add a 
touch of color and pageantry to the playground. Folk dances 
also have the peculiar advantage abroad that they are pur- 
sued by young and old,. and that the whole family often dance 
them together. But it is still too soon to say whether or not 
this will be true here. Very often, too, the folk dances have 
been a revelation to the younger generations of our immigrant 



220 Practical Conduct of Play 

peoples of the beauty of Old- World customs and practices, 
giving them a new appreciation of the country from which 
their parents came and doing much to overcome the common 
tendency amongst Americanized foreign children to feel a 
certain contempt for their parents. In many of our play 
systems, the folk dances are coming to be the chief attraction 
of the play festivals at the end of the season, and everywhere 
they are one of the most popular activities in the afternoons 
and evenings. In some systems special teachers of folk dancing 
are employed who first give the dances to the teachers and then 
go around to the playgrounds for special lessons at stated times, 
but it is quite possible for one who has had some experience in 
dancing to pick up these dances from Miss Burchenal's or Dr. 
Crampton's book without special instruction. 

Some of these dances, such as the Highland Fling, for in- 
stance, are adapted to the open sward or to any piece of level 
ground and can be danced in the playground itself. Others re- 
quire a floor and there always should be, at least on the girls' 
playground, a pavilion where these dances may be practiced. 

In some cities there is such decided objection to social 
dancing that there is sure to be opposition to the introduction 
of folk dances. But this opposition is usually dissipated when 
the objectors have actually seen the dancing. Most of the 
dances are too vigorous to be suggestive, and for the most 
part, in the playgrounds at least, girls dance with each other. 
Custom does not require full dress, with its low-necked waist, 
and altogether these dances are undoubtedly the best sub- 
stitute thus far offered for social dancing. In some places 
where the objection to social dancing is very intense, folk 
dances have been introduced under the name of " fancy steps '' 
or folk games and have roused no opposition. 



Miscellaneous Activities 221 

It adds very greatly to the charm of the folk dances if the 
children wear the costume of the country to which the dance 
belongs, but if this is done, the dresses should be of the simplest 
kind, and the children should make them themselves so far 
as possible. If the dances chosen are of the nationalities 
represented in the neighborhood, there will be much more 
cooperation and sympathy on the part of the parents than if 
dances of other peoples are chosen. 

A serious difficulty in the teaching of the folk dances in 
many places is the lack of any suitable music. This has been 
overcome in different places in different ways. In some places 
they have got along by having some of the children play 
mouth organs or jews' harps. In others they have bribed the 
hurdy-gurdies to come in. In some cases there are regular 
playground orchestras which play for the folk dances, while 
in most of the gymnasiums and field houses and in nearly 
all of the public schools there are pianos and a pianist. But 
probably the simplest provision that can be made for the folk 
dances, especially in the open playgrounds, is the victrola. 
A large number of folk-dance records have already been pre- 
pared for the victrola, so that at a comparatively slight expense 
it is possible to have this music for the dances. 

In a good many play systems, the schottische, the two-step, 
the waltz, and even some of the tango steps are taught. In the 
Chicago field houses the most popular activity during the 
afternoons is the folk dances, but the evenings are more apt to 
be devoted to social dances. In a good many of the public 
schools, also, social dancing is allowed in connection with the 
social centers. Social dancing was introduced very gradually 
into the recreation centers of New York about three or four 
years ago. It has proved very popular and is being extended 



22 2 Practical Conduct of Play 

from year to year. A wave of enthusiasm for the dance is 
sweeping over the country. Probably there are few places in 
most cities that are more dangerous for girls than the piiblic 
dance halls, which are very often connected with saloons and 
unsupervised. Probably the place where dancing may be 
safest is in the social center where the fathers and mothers 
are present as well as the young people, and where dancing is 
very often only one item on the program for the evening. 

SKATING 

If the playgrounds are maintained throughout the year, and 
the weather is cold enough, skating is usually the most popu- 
lar activity in winter wherever it is furnished. It is a com- 
paratively simple matter, in most cases, if there is any hose 
connection in the neighborhood, to bank up the ground or the 
snow around the edge of the playground and flood it at night. 
A pond that is made in this way will give two or three times 
as much skating as a lake, and involves no danger whatever. 
On a lake, the ice must be six or eight inches thick in order to 
hold the army of skaters ; but where the water is sprinkled 
on the ground, a half an inch or an inch of water is all that is 
needed. It only takes two or three degrees below freezing 
to make skating under these conditions ; while it takes very 
nearly zero on the park lake. 

In Chicago, the ball fields are used in winter for skating and 
the pavilions are closed in at the sides during the skating 
weather and heated. The ice is often fairly thronged up to the 
closing time at night. In some cities they not only flood the 
grounds, but rent skates at a nominal charge. 

Thus far there has not been as much done with roller skating 
in playgrounds as might well be done. Some of the walks 



Miscellaneous Activities 223 

offer opportunities, but there has been no attempt at system- 
atic encouragement. In the city of Reading, Pa., however, 
there are two small reservoirs that have been covered with a 
smooth cement in order to protect the water from defilement, 
and these are used very extensively for roller skating. In a 
number of Mexican cities special cement playgrounds are 
made for this purpose, and it would seem that in cities where 
roller skating is very popular, an outdoor rink of some kind 
might well be added to the playground, although it may be that 
sufficient opportunity for this sport is furnished in the way 
of pubHc rinks and the city walks. 

WALKING 

Nearly everywhere abroad walking is one of the commonest 
forms of recreation. School children are taken out many 
times a year from nearly all of the schools of Germany to visit 
places in the immediate neighborhood, and sometimes even go 
on walking trips three or four weeks in duration. From a good 
many of the summer playgrounds all-day or half-day walking 
trips are taken twice a week, and very many of the turnvereins 
and private associations of one kind or another have a walk of 
a week or more during their vacations. 

In this country walking has not thus far been considered as 
recreation, but there is a decided increase of interest in it at 
the present time, which is bring promoted by the Boy Scouts, 
the Camp Fire Girls, the playgrounds, and especially by those 
who have seen what the children are doing abroad. One 
hundred fifteen playground systems report tramping as one of 
their activities during the year 1913. 

The German walking trips are very carefully planned with a 
view to seeing and doing things that are worth while, and this 



224 Practical Conduct of Play 

should be true of all such trips. Too many of the hikes which 
have been arranged in this country have been merely hikes. 
They have been walking merely for the sake of walking, with 
no end in view, and very often they have been much too 
strenuous. All walking trips should have a definite purpose, 
and the walking itself should not appear to the children to be 
the object in view. Trips should be taken to some point of 
literary or historical interest, to some factory, or mill, or 
farm, or river, or lake, and in connection with these trips they 
should make natural history collections, go fishing and swim- 
ming, play games, or do other things of interest to them. Any 
long walking trip should always provide for at least one stop 
of considerable length, and it is always more interesting if 
there may be a camp fire and a picnic supper or dinner. 

A person who is to conduct a walking trip should know well 
the ground that is to be covered, the points of interest that 
are to be seen, and the things that are to be done. It is well to 
organize the party with scouts to discover points of interest. 
There should always be some definite place and time set for 
the gathering of the party and also some time set for their 
return, in order that this may be understood. Of ttimes it is 
best to take part of the trip by trolley or boat, in order that 
uninteresting stretches may be saved, and the children will 
usually need to have some money ; but money for candy and 
sodas is always a disadvantage on a walking trip. 

CAMPING 

It is to be regretted that children should need to spend any 
of their summers in the city. None of us choose to do it if we 
can help it, and it ought to be possible for all the children to 
get out on the farms or into some natural environment during 




Camp Stecher. Boys' Camp, Smithtown, Pa. 




Maypole Dances, Hartford. 



Miscellaneous Activities 225 

the hot weather when they are not in school. Probably the 
best possible arrangement would be for every school to have 
a camp in the country where the children might be sent 
during the siunmer vacation. 

In Germany and Denmark the government itself sends 
many thousands of anaemic or weakly children from the 
great cities to forest schools or forest camps where the out- 
door life may help them to become strong during the summer. 
The last few years have seen the establishment of a number of 
municipal camps around American cities. 

The Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls are to be thanked 
for a great increase of interest in camping, and private camps 
of various kinds are also increasing rapidly. Sixty -five play- 
ground systems report summer camps during the year 1913. 
The City of Los Angeles has just secured twenty-three acres 
in the National Forest Reserve about seventy-five miles from 
the city, and is carrying the children back and forth on great 
motor busses designed for the purpose. The boys are given 
the month of July and the girls the month of August in this 
camp, which is provided with all suitable equipment and is in 
charge of skillful directors. The children spend two weeks 
at the Los Angeles camp at an expense of only $3.50 per child. 
Philadelphia, Buffalo, and Harrisburg have also maintained 
playground camps for some time. 

The summer camp should be adjacent to both woods and 
water if possible, and should have an opportunity for swim- 
ming, boating, the playing of games, and the taking of excur- 
sions. It furnishes the best possible opportunity for the organ- 
ization of the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls, and the 
practice of the activities involved. 

A camp should always be under capable and experienced 
Q 



226 Practical Conduct of Play 

people who already know the children and their peculiarities. 
Children who are away from their parents for the first time 
often become very homesick, especially during the evening, 
but the director who is well known and liked will do much to 
tide over this period of homesickness until the children become 
more familiar with their surroundings. 

The greatest calamity that can happen to a summer camp 
is a period of rainy weather, for it is not much fun to sit in your 
tent during a long summer day and watch it rain. Moreover, 
the wood and the blankets often become wet, and then it is 
very hard to keep up the spirits of the company. There 
should always be come provision made, if possible, for such 
rainy days and for the evenings. There should be a number 
of children's books and magazines to read, there should be 
quiet games, such as authors, dominoes, and checkers, and there 
should by all means be a good victrola or phonograph which 
can play Hvely tunes when the company gets gloomy. 

THE BOY SCOUTS 

According to the Playground Year Book, Boy Scout patrols 
were organized in connection with seventy-seven of the play- 
ground systems of the country during 191 3. Scouting is 
hardly to be described as a form of play, but as a form of 
training which has in it considerable play and which encourages 
outdoor activities in general. The playgrounds themselves 
do not furnish good facilities for the practice of scouting, 
but there are opportunities for having certain drills, and it is 
always of advantage to have troops make use of the play- 
grounds. They are often helpful to the director in various 
ways, and their drills furnish an attractive feature of the play 
festival and of exhibitions given on the playground. 



Miscellaneous Activities 227 

In a great many cases the supervisor of playgrounds is also 
the Scout Commissioner for the city, and the two movements 
are thus linked together in a way that is helpful to both. 

However, the chief work of the Scouts is not on the play- 
grounds themselves, but in connection with churches, social 
centers, and summer camps. Scouting offers an excellent 
interest around which to organize boys in connection with the 
social center, and the industrial crafts of the Scouts are 
excellent training in which the boys will take a ready interest 
on account of their desire to make progress in the order. 

In connection with playground walking trips the experience 
of the Scouts should be very helpful, and they will often 
furnish a nucleus that can be depended upon to initiate such 
trips and to get out other children who might not otherwise 
desire to go. In camping, also, their skill will be equally 
useful and scouting games and exercises offer the best kind of 
recreation and exercise for the time spent at camp. Their 
training in first aid may at times also be helpful in dealing 
with playground injuries. 

The headquarters for the Boy Scouts are at 200 Fifth 
Avenue, New York City, and the secretary is Mr. James E. 
West. Boys who wish to become Scouts are required to pay 
twenty-five cents a year to headquarters toward the general 
expenses of the order, but they receive in return many ad- 
vantages which more than cover this fee. If the playground 
director wishes to become a Scout Master, he must be ap- 
pointed by headquarters and registered as such before he is 
entitled to organize a troop and to take charge of the work. 
The manuals, which should be in the hands of every Scout, 
cost twenty-five cents, and the Scout Master's Manual fifty. 
The Scout Master, however, is entitled for this sum to receive 



228 Practical Conduct of Play 

also the bimonthly magazine Scouting which is devoted 

to this work. 

THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS 

The Camp Fire Girls is a still more recent order that is in 
many ways similar to the Scouts. It was organized in New 
York City on March 17, 191 2, but by the first of January, 
1 914, about sixty thousand girls had become members of the 
order. It is offering to girls a fundamental training in the 
arts which are essentially feminine, and giving them probably 
the best preparation that is offered anywhere for the work of 
the home and the development of an intimate social life. Its 
essential aim, as given by Dr. GuUck, is to bring romance 
and adventure into the common things of daily life, and it hopes 
through its ceremonial and honors to develop in the girls a 
sense of service and a new feeling of responsibiHty for 
the younger members of the family and for the community 
at large. 

The Camp Fire offers one of the best possible organizations 
for girls in connection with the social center and also one of the 
most wholesome and pleasant activities that can be carried on 
in connection with walking or the summer camp or similar 
activities. Wherever the Camp Fire movement is strong, it 
will be wise for the playgrounds to offer training in those 
activities which will enable the girls to win honors and pass 
from the lower orders to the higher, as this is sure to build 
up attendance as well as to give to the girls a most wholesome 
form of training. For each of the arts of the Camp Fire which 
the girl masters she is entitled to wear a bead, and when these 
beads are put together in a chain they afford a real decoration 
and are at the same time an indication that the girl has become 
proficient in the arts of the housewife and mother. 



Miscellaneous Activities 229 

The idea of service which is found everywhere in the cere- 
monies of the order should lead these girls to be very helpful 
on the playground as monitors and leaders in various activities. 

The headquarters for the Camp Fire Girls are at 118 East 
28th St., New York City; Dr. Luther Gulick is president. 
if the woman director wishes to organize a Camp Fire group 
among her girls, she must be recommended and appointed 
as Guardian from headquarters. Each Camp Fire must pay 
a minimum fee of five dollars a year, for which, however, it 
will receive in return regalia valued at about eight dollars. 

CHILDREN'S GARDENS 

By this title are usually understood the vegetable gardens 
that are a feature in so many playgrounds. There is no in- 
herent reason for this connection between the playgrounds 
and gardening, as gardening is not always play to children. 
The gardens are to be regarded as a form of manual training 
in the open air. There is a great lack of such handicrafts 
for boys in the city playgrounds. No boy wants to play all 
the time, and almost any form of legitimate handicraft is 
worth while. Carpentry and iron working are good, but they 
require a shop and tools and expensive materials, and they 
savor all too much of the school. Every child ought to know 
as a part of his education how plants grow. He ought to know 
how the vegetables that he sees every day on the table look 
in the ground. Agriculture is, by far, our largest trade in this 
country. A knowledge of tillage merely as knowledge is 
much more fundamental to civilization and general education 
than iron working or carpentry. Furthermore the gardening 
is in the open air and must be carried on during summer time 
while the playgrounds are in operation. 



230 Practical Conduct of Play 

Commissioner of Education Philander P. Claxton is now 
seeking to have the various cities employ at least one teacher 
in connection with each school for the year who shall devote his 
time during the summer to instructing the children in garden- 
ing. He says that on a piece of ground fifty by one hundred 
feet a child ten years of age can easily raise fifty to one 
hundred dollars' worth of vegetables each year; that a 
teacher can supervise the gardening of a hundred children, 
thus bringing a return to the city during the summer, at a 
minimum of fifty dollars per garden, of five thousand dollars. 
The expense connected with this will not be more than 
five hundred dollars; and the educational value to the 
children will be no less than the direct returns from the 
vegetables. 

The common practice in the playgrounds has been to raise 
four or five different kinds of vegetables, such as radishes, 
beets, lettuce, turnips, carrots, and the like in individual plots, 
and then perhaps to have some large experimental plots on 
which various other things are raised. One of the most 
successful gardens of this kind is the one conducted by Mrs. 
Henry Parsons, of New York City. It is known as the Inter- 
national Farm School. It is located in De Witt Clinton Park 
at about Fiftieth Street and Tenth Avenue. There is a tract 
about one hundred and fifty feet square laid out to somewhat 
less than four hundred small gardens. The gardens are four 
by eight feet in size and contain much the same series of 
vegetables as has been mentioned above. They are so planted 
that the rows of radishes and beets are continuous from bed 
to bed across the field. There is a great mass of cannas around 
the flagpole in the center. At one side is a small house with 
a range, where the girls often prepare and serve on the spot 



Miscellaneous Activities 231 

the vegetables that they have raised. They can also have 
afternoon parties and do other interesting things by means of 
this equipment. The garden is always in general charge of 
two or three gardeners. The children do all of their planting 
and most of their cultivation under direction. Each child 
has his own tools and is responsible for his own plot. If 
he neglects it, it is taken away from him and given to 
some other child. The children learn much of the laws of 
germination, growth, and fertilization, of soil erosion and 
other fundamental processes. 

On one of these small gardens, it is possible to raise as much 
of the minor vegetables as a small family will care for. Some 
children have sold the produce for as much as five dollars. 
There is a similar garden for the crippled and tuberculous 
children at Bellevue Hospital. This is work that these 
children can do, and th^ open-air life is good for them. 
Gardening is well worth while in connection with the play- 
grounds, if there is sufficient land and some one to devote 
his time to it. Gardens, however, will not run themselves, 
nor can the interest and knowledge of physical directors be 
depended on to make them a success. 

INDUSTRIAL CRAFTS 

There are three different kinds of industrial occupations 
which are provided on many of our playgrounds. The first of 
these are for the little children and are much the same as the 
kindergarten occupations. They consist of paper folding, 
picture cutting and pasting, simple weaving, and clay model- 
ing. These are really constructive play for the children and 
are thoroughly enjoyed. 

For the older girls, raffia work, crocheting, and basketry 



232 Practical Conduct of Play 

are carried on in many playgrounds, and are much liked. The 
products of these occupations are nearly always appreciated 
by the parents. As there are many children who stay much 
longeron the playground than they care to play vigorous games, 
and as there are rainy periods when they are driven to shelter 
and hot periods when they do not care to play outside, the 
provision for this industrial work, as it is called, is well worth 
while. In a number of systems a regular teacher of industrial 
crafts is employed, who both gives lessons to the other direc- 
tors and also supervises this work in all the grounds. There 
are a few cautions which may be worth noting. One is that 
material should not be given out to the children as has often 
been done, without first giving instruction as to how to use it. 
Children should not be given new material until they have 
finished the baskets, or socks, or mats, or whatever they may 
have already undertaken, and they ought not to be allowed to 
carry the material home or around the grounds, as it is rapidly 
dissipated in this way. Where the children wish to make 
larger things, as knitted sweaters or fascinators for themselves, 
they should be required to pay for the materials used. The 
baskets made are often so excellent that they find a ready sale, 
if the children choose to sell them ; but they are usually very 
proud of their work and wish to keep it themselves. Wher- 
ever the playground adjoins a school building, the domestic 
economy department should be opened, if it is feasible, so that 
the girls may have cooking, sewing, and other industrial 
work inside, and the boys may have manual training. 

The playground really furnishes an opportunity for a better 
type of work than we have thus far been able to provide for 
children anywhere. We have all regretted the disappearance 
of the chores and the home work through which children got 



Miscellaneous Activities 233 

so much of their training forty or fifty years ago. The school 
has endeavored to give this back to them in the way of domes- 
tic economy and manual training, but so much of this work 
has lacked purpose and interest that it has been far from ideal. 
If, on the other hand, the children are put out into industry 
and become child laborers, the occupations that are open to 
them are blind-alley pursuits with no future and no valuable 
training, and the child has no normal motive to gain profi- 
ciency in his work. On the other hand, the playground should 
be a sort of child's world, a Junior RepubKc, a place where 
the children themselves are the citizens and where they will 
not only play but do nearly all of the things that are to be done. 
There should be every encouragement for them to make and 
keep in repair the apparatus which they are to use. It is 
entirely feasible for the boys to plant the hedges and to con- 
struct their own jumping pits, running tracks, tennis and 
volley-ball courts, and baseball diamonds. The making of the 
jumping standards, the concreting of the wading pools, and 
even the construction of the permanent equipment may 
not be beyond their capacity. The girls should make the 
bean bags, baseball bases, and their own bloomers, and special 
suits for folk dances, so far as these are required. 

A playground where this is done will need a very skillful 
and sympathetic director, one who can secure cooperation and 
develop a social spirit. He should be well paid, but many of 
the other expenses of the playground in the way of equipment 
and repairs will thus be reduced to a minimum, not only 
because the children do most of the work in the first place, but 
because there will thus be developed a spirit of ownership 
which will prevent almost entirely the carelessness and vandal- 
ism which are apt to make the charge for repairs and supplies 



234 Practical Conduct of Play 

larger than it should be. In the construction of the equipment 
and laying out of courts for games children must work, of 
course, under expert supervision. In the case of a school 
playground which already has its manual training equipment 
and perhaps its iron working, this should be easy, but it will 
be much more difficult to secure this sort of cooperation in 
the municipal playgrounds. 

STORY-TELLING 

The story is the beginning of literature, and all of our great 
racial epics have been handed on for many generations by 
special story-tellers or by the old men of the tribe, often with 
the strictest observance of the form and with an absolute 
exactitude of repetition, until the invention of letters made 
it possible to preserve them in print. Among all primitive 
peoples story-telling is a main form of recreation, and there are 
few things that are more delightful to children. In some of 
the playgrounds, specialists are employed who go from ground 
to ground to tell stories at stated times, and nearly everywhere 
the kindergartner or woman director is expected to give a 
period every day, or at least three or four periods a week, to 
story-telling. 

The kindergartners have had some training along this line in 
connection with their normal courses, but our most expert 
story-tellers, as a rule, are the children's librarians who have 
usually had special preparation in order that they may interest 
children in the reading of books. During the last few years, 
there has also arisen a class of professional story-tellers who go 
from city to city. Various arrangements are made in the 
different cities to secure story-tellers, but the children's libra- 
rian is nearly always glad to come to the playground at cer- 



Miscellaneous Activities 235 

tain times for this purpose, and there are often young college 
women without very much to do who are glad to do the same. 

Story-telHng is difficult in the playground, because the chil- 
dren are of different ages, and there often is no suitable place. 
Frequently the children are gathered in the sand bin, some- 
times on the steps of the school building or of the field house, 
and sometimes they are seated under a tree. Often, in the 
smaller playgrounds, the other activities must be stopped 
during the story hour. The teacher who would be successful 
in telling stories on the playground must know her story well 
and be able to enter into the spirit of it. Most of the pro- 
fessionals commit their stories verbatim and recite them as 
they would poetry. The most popular stories for small 
children everywhere are fairy tales and the old classic myths 
of Greece and Rome, Uncle Remus, Bible stories, and the Hke. 
An excellent list can be secured from the Playground and 
Recreation Association of America at i Madison Avenue, 
New York City or from the children's Kbrary of Pittsburgh, 
Pa. Stories to Tell Children, by Sara Cone Bryant, and 
Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them, by Richard Wyche, 
are two excellent books. 

Story-telHng also furnishes one of the best forms of evening 
entertainment for the social center, for any one who can tell 
the great stories well can usually hold a large audience breath- 
less, even though the tales that are told are the simplest of 

children's stories. 

THE LIBRARY 

Seventy-one of the playground systems of the country report 
that they have Hbraries in connection with their playgrounds. 
The story is one of the most universal forms of recreation 
during our leisure time, and the sunmier affords the chief 



236 Practical Conduct of Play 

opportunity for reading which the children have. In some 
way all the common children's books should be accessible to 
them during the summer. The playground is not the best 
place for books, because the children's hands are apt to be 
dirty, the playground is noisy, and, as the children come from 
different sections of the city and are not well known person- 
ally, it is difficult to get back books which are lent to them. 
Probably the best solution of the library question is to 
have a branch library in connection with each school, and 
have the children get the books there during the vacations as 
well as the school year. Children who attend the school are 
known and responsible, so that it is safe to let them have books, 
whereas it would not be at all safe to give out books to the 
children on the playgrounds of a great city who drift in and 
out as they choose, and who may go from playground to play- 
ground, perhaps not returning for a long time to the ground 
from which the book was taken. 

DRAMATICS 

Attending some form of theatricals, chiefly the movies, is 
undoubtedly the most popular form of recreation among 
adults. The little child imitates the occupations of the people 
around him, and the stories he reads and hears. When the 
circus comes to town, it sets the boys to playing circus for 
weeks afterwards. The kindergarten itself was built on this 
dramatic impulse, and dramatics are being more and more 
introduced into school work through the newer types of 
readers, the giving of plays, and the establishment of children's 
theaters. 

Sixty-one cities report dramatics as a part of their annual 
playground activities. In most of these the dramatics are un- 



Miscellaneous Activities 237 

doubtedly in the field houses or social centers rather than in 
the playgrounds themselves. But there are a few cities in 
which the dramatics are carried on out of doors, and Pitts- 
burgh at least employs a regular director of dramatics. In 
making a beginning it is often well to let the children act out 
the parts using their own words, without taking the trouble 
to commit the stories verbatim. 

In the social centers and field houses dramatics are nearly 
always one of the most popular activities, and nearly all of 
them have one or two dramatic clubs which give entertain- 
ments at various times. This is not only good training, as it 
makes life and literature more real to the children ; but it also 
furnishes an opportunity for wholesome entertainment to the 
community and helps to make the social center independent 

of outside talent. 

MOVING PICTURES 

Forty-eight playground systems reported moving pictures 
as one of their activities during 191 3. There is nothing to 
indicate how far these pictures were exhibited on the play- 
grounds themselves and how far they were shown in connec- 
tion with the social center or the field house. But there is 
every indication that the moving picture is to be a larger and 
larger element in public recreation in the future. There is a 
moving picture machine in connection with all the social 
centers in the city of Boston, and the social centers established 
under the Brooklyn Institute in New York have been sup- 
ported almost entirely from the receipts of the moving pictures 
which have been offered to the public for a five-cent fee. 

In some places there has been opposition on the part of 
commercial interests to the offering of these entertainments, 
and the authorities often fear that the expense will be pro- 



238 Practical Conduct of Play 

hibitive. But in actual fact, where a hall and electricity and 
perhaps an operator can be furnished free, as is frequently the 
case in connection with the schools or the playgrounds, the 
expense of running a moving picture exhibition is very slight. 
It need not be more than three to five dollars a night for a 
series of films which will be much better than the average 
pictures of the ordinary moving picture show, and a fee of 
one cent might be sufficient to cover all expenses. 

In every case when it is desired to call the parents and the 
older boys and girls out in the evening, the moving picture is 
probably the easiest way to secure their attendance. It is esti- 
mated that at present about seven million people attend mov- 
ing pictures every day in the United States, and it is almost 
the only form of recreation which is commonly patronized by 
the working people. The pictures .shown in the commercial 
theaters are no better than the public demands. There is 
perhaps no other institution which has possibilities equal to 
those of the moving picture in the teaching of morals and 
social needs, as well as very many subjects now in the cur- 
riculum of the school, and we may anticipate that in the 
future it will be one of the very largest factors in all systems 
of public recreation and instruction. 

SINGING 

Singing is a common form of social entertainment every- 
where, and groups of young people nearly always wish to sing 
during a part of the time that they are together. Most of the 
kindergarten games are singing games, and there is also a 
great variety of games for children a little above the kinder- 
garten age involving singing. In some of the playgrounds 
patriotic songs are always sung at the beginning of the day 



Miscellaneous Activities 239 

and also at closing time. Pittsburgh has made a special 
feature of choral singing and has a special director of music. 
Philadelphia insists that its directors shall have a " singing 
voice.'' 

In pioneer days the singing school was one of the features 
that made the district school a social center, and in nearly 
all of our city centers to-day singing is one of the commonest 
activities. In the social centers in Rochester, under Pro- 
fessor Ward, there was a period of singing each evening, and 
a series of social center songs developed there which it was an 
inspiration to hear, for they breathed the spirit of good fellow- 
ship which every social center should develop. In Philadel- 
phia, also, there is a period of common singing at most of the 
gatherings of the School and Home Associations which con- 
stitute the social centers in that city. Boston makes choral 
singing a large feature, though there it is not so much the 
singing of all who attend as it is of special groups who come 
together for singing and a social time. Special instructors in 
singing are employed in Boston and singing clubs seem to be 
very well attended. If the director has some skill, singing is 
one of the best activities for rainy days on the playground. 
It is one of the best ways of creating a common spirit and 
developing sociability in any group. For these reasons it 
should be used in the playgrounds and the social centers 
whenever the training of the director and the other conditions 

make it feasible. 

AN ORCHESTRA 

There are fifty-one playground systems that report instru- 
mental music as one of their activities during the year 1913. 
In these cities this is also probably an activity of the social 
centers, for the most part, rather than of the playgrounds 



240 Practical Conduct of Play 

themselves, though there are a number of systems where there 
is considerable instrumental music in the playground . Worces- 
ter, Massachusetts, for instance, had an orchestra of forty- 
five pieces which constituted the general band, and also smaller 
orchestras at many of the separate grounds. An orchestra 
of its own is an advantage to a playground because music is 
needed for the marching, the folk dancing, and social dancing. 
In the social centers an orchestra is often needed in con- 
nection with various entertainments and may furnish at times 
a whole evening's program to the community. For the young 
people who take part, it offers one of the most interesting 
activities. In the evening centers of Boston, some of these 
orchestras have a large membership and are led by expert 
musicians. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE PLAY FESTIVAL 

The play festival is perhaps the best advertisement that 
the playgrounds have. It is a comparatively new institution 
here, being largely an importation from Germany, where it is 
chiefly for adults rather than children. The first one in this 
country of which I have any knowledge was held in Washington 
in the summer of 1905. The next year the Playground Asso- 
ciation of America was organized and its constitution stated 
that a play festival should be held each year in connection 
with its annual meeting. At the first congress in Chicago, 
there was a notable play festival. Since that time, nearly 
every playground system has had at least one a year. In 
the vacation playgrounds the festival is usually held during 
the last week of August or the first week of September. In the 
school systems, it usually comes in May or June. In the 
municipal playgrounds it may occur at any time, but it is 
usually in the spring or early fall. 

Very often each playground will hold a local play festival 
on its own grounds during the week before the general play 
festival for the city. This is a good thing, because it brings 
out many contestants and participants who would not be 
able to take part in the general festival. It also gives an 
inexpensive and pleasing spectacle to the community in 
which it is placed, and serves as a dress rehearsal for the 
participants. 

R 241 



242 Practical Conduct of Play 

In the summer playground the play festival is usually the 
grand finale. It practically determines the work and the 
daily program, as the children must practice during the sea- 
son the things that they are to exhibit at the end. It gives a 
motive for much of the practice, which would lack zest if it 
were not to be exhibited. 

It is well to make this festival a sort of fair or exhibition, 
and it should show actual activities. It would be a good 
thing if each play festival might be begun with a short address 
which would explain the relation of the tournament events 
to the actual playground program. 

It is well to have the kindergarten section well represented, 
because people always love to watch the games and hear the 
songs of these little people. In Washington we always placed 
the kindergarten children first on the program. Each play- 
ground was represented by a group usually from twent)^ to 
sixty in number. They usually all wore white, each group 
playing two different games, so that there were from twenty- 
five to thirty games played in about ten minutes. This 
was often pronounced the most interesting thing on the pro- 
gram. 

The industrial work is not as a rule represented at the play 
festival, but it should be if there is any place for it. It should 
be mounted artistically on large cards and hung up under- 
neath the grandstand or in the pavilion or in any place where 
wall space is afforded. If there is no such place, the exhibition 
should not be attempted except in the dry climates of the West. 

In the folk dances that are given in different cities the 
children often appear in the costumes of peasants of the 
country which the dance represents. Such costumes should 
be made of very inexpensive materials. 



The Play Festival 243 

The maypole dance is one of the prettiest and naost popular 
dances that can be given at a play festival, and often the whole 
field is filled with the beribboned poles. 

The dances at the Chicago festival have been especially 
interesting. These are of three kinds: those given by the 
playground children; those exhibited by the schools of 
dancing ; and those given by the foreign societies of Chicago. 
The last have attracted most attention. Probably there is 
no other place where such a sight might be seen. In the 
rural villages of Sweden, one may see the Scandinavian dances. 
In the highlands of Scotland, one may see the highland dances, 
etc. But in Chicago one may see the peasants from Sweden 
and Norway, from Scotland, Spain, and Italy, give their own 
characteristic dances in costume. It reveals at once how cos- 
mopolitan American cities have become, and gives one a com- 
parative view such as can scarcely be had elsewhere. 

THE PAGEANT 

The pageant has not thus far come to play a large part in 
playground activities, but there has been a new interest in 
pageantry both in England and America during the last 
decade. Most of these pageants have represented the history 
of the place where they were held or the history of the country. 
They have usually been given by the people of the locality 
who have often been trained by an expert in pageantry. They 
have been a very effective means of teaching local history 
and awakening civic pride. 

In connection with the Hudson Centennial celebration in 
1909, the children from the playgrounds gave a pageant rep- 
resenting the early history of New York. In Pittsburgh at 
the third annual meeting of the Playground Association of 



244 Practical Conduct of Play 

America, the children gave a pageant which represented first 
the Hfe of the Indians, the coming of the trappers, the settling 
of the fort and city by the French, the capture of the fort by 
the English, the Revolutionary war, etc. 

The celebration of the Fourth of July, of Hallowe'en and 
Labor Day often involves a good deal of pageantry. Boston 
now has a Director of Exhibitions, on an annual salary, and 
very notable pageants are given, especially on Columbus Day, 
but this is a celebration by the city rather than by the play- 
ground children. In general the pageant seems destined to 
have a larger part in public recreation than it does in play. 
The Mardi Gras of New Orleans has become famous the 
country over. Kansas City has its Knights of Pallas day 
and many other cities have begun within the last few years 
to hold some sort of annual pageant. There are some ele- 
ments of pageantry in most of the larger play festivals. 

THE TOURNAMENT 

When the major playground exhibition shows all sides of 
the playground activity and especially the folk dancing, it is 
called a " play festival," but when it consists wholly or chiefly 
of athletics and games, it is usually called a "tournament." 

Securing Training. — If the play of the playgrounds is to 
secure different physical results from that of the streets, it 
must be largely because it has furnished greater and more 
satisfactory incentives to effort. The play of the vacant lot 
is listless and motiveless. It is a type of effort that never 
secures results in any field. The tournament serves the pur- 
pose of a periodic examination or exhibition. It requires 
organization and training, and it provides interest and motive 
for strenuous endeavor. 



The Play Festival 245 

There are always many who feel that the playground should 
be a place for the children to play and the less it is organized 
the better it will be. But play in order to be educational 
must be made interesting, and it will secure physical, mental, 
and social results almost directly in proportion to the interest 
which it excites. My conversion to the principle of organized 
tournaments grew out of our experience in Washington, 
where we began with the idea that the children should do 
pretty much as they wanted to, but we found that a couple 
of boys would go to the tether pole and bat the ball first one 
way and then the other without any attempt to win. At the 
end of a second or third inning in indoor baseball, often neither 
side would know what the score was. It seemed reasonably 
evident that no vital training could be given by that kind of 
play; so we began to organize tournaments in the different 
events, with the immediate result of securing much more 
interest in the play and very much better play from the physi- 
cal, the intellectual, and the social standpoint. The principles 
that apply to athletics elsewhere apply also in the play- 
grounds. Three things are fundamental to real success : to 
get as large a number of children as possible to participate ; 
to teach and enforce the laws of sportsmanship ; and to avoid 
strains. 

Playground loafing is little better than loafing elsewhere, 
and the great problem is to get every one to participate. One 
of the most effective ways of arousing interest in running is the 
relay race with a large number of contestants. In a relay 
race with ten or fifteen on a team, it is not only necessary for 
a large number to train, but the enthusiasm is much more 
intense than it is where there are only a few participants. 
The Standard Test is also a good thing. Every playground 



246 Practical Conduct of Play 

should seek to set a standard of physical achievement and try 
to get all the children to come up to it. The great advantage 
of the test is that it is non-competitive and that the winning 
by one does not interfere with the efforts of the others, but 
rather lends motive to them. Class athletics have been used 
successfully in some school systems, but they are not so easily 
appHed in the playgrounds. A large part of the difficulty is 
that there is no general feeling thus far for athletics as a part 
of the training of every boy. The playgrounds are steadily 
creating that feeling. When it becomes general, every boy 
and every girl will want to take part. 

The unorganized scrub play has little value, but when con- 
tests begin to be held, and sport of the interplayground variety 
is introduced, we have the same danger that we have in inter- 
collegiate sport, that the few on the playground teams will 
get all the training, and the others will be neglected. The 
problem is how to maintain a high standard of excellence and 
enthusiasm through the interplayground meets and at the same 
time get all the children into training. To this end it is well to 
post up in each playground at the beginning of the season the 
program of events and the records of the previous year, so 
that the children may know both the events and the degree 
of efhciency that will be required in order for them to be 
successful. 

A contest is a good thing to arouse energy and effort, but it 
has no value as a test to find out which boy in the playground 
can run the fastest, and its larger results are only secured when 
it serves as an incentive to the training of all. A final tourna- 
ment in and of itself has little value, because it secures little 
training, and involves only a few participants. From many 
points of view the most important tournaments are the ones 



The Play Festival 247 

held within the playground. There should be home tourna- 
ments in indoor baseball, volley ball, basket ball, and all 
the field events. Unless this is done, there will probably be 
only one or two teams in each event of the interplayground 
tournament, and only a small number of children will take 
part. 

There is apt to be some difficulty with boys who have been 
trained in private schools or elsewhere coming back to take 
part. These boys have very likely had exceptional advantages 
and are quite out of the class of the playground children. 
Three or four exceptional athletes of this kind from Lawrence- 
ville or the Hill School, for instance, returning a couple of 
weeks before the close of the summer and entering for the 
playground contests may win a large number of the prizes 
offered. It is best to prevent this and at the same time set 
the whole group of children to training early in the season 
by requiring that every boy who is to compete in a final event 
must have won a certain number of points in the prelim- 
inary contests. We had the rule in Washington that to be 
eligible for a final a child must have made three points in the 
event in which he wished to compete in the preliminaries, which 
meant that he might have won one first, a second and a third, 
or three thirds. 

It is well to keep the record of each of these prelimi- 
nary tournaments, and to add the score of the second tour- 
nament to the first, so that each playground will know just 
how well it has done in each contest and how well its 
opponents have done also. This often adds considerably to 
the interest. 

Athletic Events and Games. — So far as possible all the 
playground athletics should be exhibited. 



248 Practical Conduct of Play 

The chinning can be done either on a horizontal bar or on 
an incHned ladder, if a bar is not available. 

The following is suggested as an appropriate list of events 
in which to hold contests. 

The 25-yard dash. 

The 50-yard dash. 

The 60-yard dash. 

The 100-yard dash. 

The 220-yard dash, if there are many older children. 

The relay race, 60 yards each. 

The potato race. 

The low hurdles. 

The running broad jump. 

The running high jump. 

The game of soccer football. 

The game of hockey. 

The game of volley ball. 

The game of indoor baseball. 

The game of long ball. 

The game of baseball. 

The game of basket ball. 

The game of tennis. 

The game of tether ball. 

The game of croquet (for girls). 

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but every item is 
suited to playgrounds except possibly the 220-yard dash and 
the hurdles. 

Competition for Girls. — As to whether girls should take 
part in interplayground contests, there is much difference of 
opinion, some holding that the pubHcity and advertising tend 
to the development of essentially unfeminine traits, and that 



The Play Festival 249 

the girls are likely to strain themselves. If we go back to 
history for light, we find that men have always been the par- 
ticipants in contests, while women have been the spectators 
and often the prizes of the contest. It cannot be thought that 
contests develop femininity in girls, as they do virility in 
boys. No one can well hold that they have as large a place in 
their training. However, girls and boys are much alike un- 
til they are eleven or twelve years of age, and the arguments 
that are offered against competitive basket ball for young 
women do not apply with equal force to competitive foot 
races for girls of ten. It is doubtless well to err on the side 
of safety, but it would scarcely be wise to eliminate such con- 
tests altogether. Girls need encouragement and incentives in 
athletics much more than boys do. 

Classification of Children in Contests. — There has been 
considerable dispute during the last few years as to the best 
basis of classification in contests. It is obviously impossible 
that a ten-year-old boy should compete against a fifteen-year- 
old boy and have any chance of success or retain any interest 
in the competition. Contests must take place between chil- 
dren of reasonably equal ability. The standard that is most 
used is probably the weight standard. This has the advantage 
of simplicity and accuracy, and it is very easily applied. A 
boy can lie about his age, and you cannot correct his state- 
ment by looking at his teeth or examining his tongue. He 
may lie about his weight, but he is easily convicted of his 
falsehood by the ready scales. If five hundred boys are com- 
peting in the 100-pound class, the scale can be set at a hundred 
pounds, and the five hundred boys walked over the scales and 
weighed in five minutes, and there can be no disputing the 
decision. But there does not seem to be any reason why the 



250 Practical Conduct of Play 

fat boy of thirteen should be made to compete with the wiry 
muscular boy of sixteen. The fleshy boy is at a disadvantage 
even with boys of his own age, because he has so much more 
weight to carry around. It requires much greater muscular 
exertion for him to secure the same result either in a foot 
race or in a chinning contest than it does for a thin boy. In 
justice the fleshy boy ought to be given a handicap. There is 
no direct relationship between bulk and strength, so the best 
that can be said for this system in general athletics is that it 
is a convenience. In all contests involving personal combat, 
however, such as boxing, wrestHng, and football, weight is an 
advantage, and contestants may justly be divided according 
to this standard. 

A second simple test is the height standard. This is also 
easily applied, though not so easily as the weight test. It is 
far more just as a basis of classification. Whereas weight 
is nearly always a disadvantage in playground contests, 
height is an advantage in many sports. It enables the pos- 
sessor to take longer strides in the runs and jumps, and it gives 
a marked advantage in such games as basket ball, volley ball, 
tether ball, and more or less in nearly all the other games. 
However, this height must go with a closely knit muscu- 
lar frame, which is not often found in rapidly growing 
children. Loose-jointed unmuscular length is a handicap, as 
all the muscles have to act on longer levers than where the 
person is shorter. 

Physiological age has been suggested as probably the best 
standard, and it probably is, but in the playground it is 
utterly impossible to apply it. What do we know about the 
physiological age of the playground contestants? 

The only common standard left is the age standard. Chil- 



The Play Festival 251 

dren enter school and leave school, they attain maturity and 
die, according to their age ; their opportunities for training 
have been similarly determined. We do not allow the large 
boy to vote at eighteen and the small one at twenty-five. In 
the contests of Kfe, the small man has to compete with the big 
man, and there is no reason why we should impose on the 
featherweight in general athletics the condition of perpetual 
childhood. But the difficulties of this standard are serious. 
There is birth registration over only about one half of this 
country, and most of this is recent legislation, and it is very 
easy to lie about your age. At one time a rule was made in 
the playgrounds of New York City that no child over eight 
was to go into the kindergarten section where the swings were. 
We immediately discovered that there were no children over 
eight in the playground. However, the difficulties are be- 
coming lighter each year. Birth certificates are increasingly 
available. If the contest occurs during the school year, the 
school records may be consulted. With Catholic or Jewish 
children the record of confirmation will be helpful. In actual 
fact the work may be simplified in a number of ways. It is a 
good thing to have a card which the parent of the child and 
the director of the playground are required to sign, which will 
contain the parents' statement of the age, and the director's 
O.K., which will represent his belief in the accuracy of the 
statement. The captains of the teams may well be made 
responsible for the eligibiHty of their men. They should be 
made to understand that if the team should contain a single 
man over age, the score would be thrown out, and the ones 
falsely registered disqualified from competing in further 
events. It is comparatively easy for the captain, as a rule, 
to find out exactly about the ages of his men, as some of the 



252 Practical Conduct of Play 

boys are sure to know. It is well also to have the qualifica- 
tion in the age standard that the person shall be " actually and 
apparently " under a certain age, thus giving an opportunity 
to the officials to apply the physiological age standard to a few 
boys who are obviously out of the class of the boys of their age. 
There are never more than a few boys whose age is in doubt, 
so using this standard is not really so great a burden as it might 
seem at first. This paragraph is not an attempt to dictate the 
use of one standard rather than another, but rather to show 
the difficulties with each standard. In some cases a combined 
standard, as age and weight, or age and height, is used. 

Making Ready. — The preKminaries for a tournament are 
numerous and more or less burdensome. To run off a contest 
successfully requires at least a dozen competent officials, and 
many minor helpers who will assist in marshaling the crowd, 
judging finishes, etc. If four or five contests are being held 
on the same day, this really demands forty or fifty officials, a 
number which it is practically impossible to obtain in most 
cities. It is well to have an athletic committee that will 
scurry around among the various athletic clubs, Y.M. and 
Y.W.C.A.s for these officials and keep as many of them 
on tap as possible. A large number of officials are always 
needed as starters and judges of finishes, and to help keep the 
crowd back from the contestants. It is a good thing to give 
out to the director of the playground where the contest is 
to be held fifteen or twenty official badges and instruct him 
to secure these officials from the neighborhood. It gives the 
local people a new sense of ownership and interest in the 
playground when they help in this way. There are some 
neighborhoods, of course, where this idea is not so applicable 
as it is in others. 



The Play Festival 253 

The papers should be notified in advance and asked to send 
representatives and a photographer. To get his picture in 
the paper is often a greater prize to a boy than a gold medal, 
and the possibility always stimulates the interest and the 
attendance. The parents and the city officials should be 
invited to come. They will not often come merely to visit 
the playground, but they will come out occasionally to a 
tournament. The captain of the precinct in which the play- 
ground is located should be asked to send as many men as he 
can spare. Policemen may not really be needed, but it is al- 
ways wise to have them. They will help in keeping the crowd 
in order, and the space clear for contestants. One can never 
be sure either that rowdy sympathizers with some of the 
contestants will not start a disturbance. We once had a con- 
test between two colored playgrounds in Washington, where, 
I am sure, there would shortly have been razors on the scene 
if we had not had the police there. 

The director of the ground where the contest is to be held 
should be responsible for seeing that the ground is in condition 
at the time set; that certain areas are roped off; that the 
baskets and potatoes are ready for the potato race ; that the 
jumping pits and track are in condition ; that all the equip- 
ment needed for the games is on hand. 

It should be a rule of the contest that every event begin on 
time, and that the children who are late will sacrifice the points 
scheduled for that time. This teaches punctuality, and the 
rule will not need to be enforced more than once or twice. 

The question of the transportation of the players is sure to 
be a vexed one. In some localities the children are not able 
to pay their car fares, and it is hard to discriminate and give 
car fares to some and not to others. It scarcely seems a good 



254 Practical Conduct of Play 

policy to pay the car fares of all contestants, but often it is 
the only thing to be done, as the children otherwise will not 
come. This is a question, however, that each city will have 
to settle for itself. Children are often taken on outings where 
their car fare is paid, and there is at least as much reason for 
paying their fare to contests. 

One of the great difficulties in contests is that the spectators 
tend to crowd in on the players. In the playground, it is 
difficult to prevent this. But certain areas should be roped 
off, and it is best to have several events going on at the same 
time, so as to divide the crowd. Girls' events, if there are 
any, should be run simultaneously with boys', and events for 
small boys at the same time as events for large boys, jumps at 
the same time as sprints, etc. Theoretically it is best that 
every child should compete in a number of activities, and thus 
secure a rounded development, but a few stars thus often 
win an undue proportion of the prizes and discourage the 
others, and it is often necessary to limit each contestant to one 
field event and one game, in order to finish the contest within 
the time set. Games that drag on into the evening are apt 
to see disturbances at the end, and the parents are unwilling 
to have their children out in a strange part of the city after 
sundown. It is often impossible to begin a contest in summer 
before three or four o'clock in the afternoon, so it is neces- 
sary to run off all events with dispatch. 

Sportsmanship. — The most important training that the 
playground can give is a training in sportsmanship. The 
children usually come without any of its traditions, and they 
have to be taught. Sportsmanship may be defined in two 
words, " manliness and courtesy." The children will not 
understand the significance of either of these words as applied 




Play Festival, Hazard Playground, Los Angeles, Calif. 



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Slausen Playground, showing Field House and Boys' Section beyond, 
Los Angeles, Calif. 



The Play Festival 255 

to play and they will have to be instructed in each detail. 
" Manhness " means that you are not to lose courage when the 
other side gets ahead. You are to play just as hard when the 
score is ten to nothing, as when it is five to five. No one can 
tell what may happen in the last inning. If the final score is 
ten to nothing, you must not go ofi like a whipped dog with 
your head down, or say that they didn't win fair, or that they 
were bigger than you were, etc., but give them a good cheer 
and say you will try them again later. " Courtesy '' means 
that you will treat the visiting team as your guests, that you 
will show them all the courtesies of your playground, that 
you will not call them names or push or stone them, that you 
will readily grant them the benefit of any doubt, that you will 
not by any cheering or calls or interference try to disconcert 
their signals or annoy or impede the contestants, that you 
will cheer their good plays not their mistakes, that you will 
accept the decisions of the umpire without remark. In actual 
fact the directors need to be cautioned in these respects 
nearly as much as the children, and the parents need it a great 
deal more. It is a question of , building up a sentiment 
favorable to sportsmanlike play. 

In Washington, it was a difficult matter in the beginning to 
hold contests between playgrounds in different sections of the 
city. Something unpleasant nearly always happened. There 
were disagreements with the umpire, there was crowding and 
hustling of visitors, and often on their departure they were 
" trotted," which means that they were followed and hooted 
at or even struck or stoned by children of the home ground. 
In some cases, there were standing feuds between children of 
different sections of the city which had been handed on from 
one generation of children to another for a score or more of 



256 Practical Conduct of Play 

years. In order to deal with this situation we made at the 
beginning of the season the following rules : 

Ten points shall be given on courtesy and form. 

They shall be added to the score of each side, if they play a fair 
game, without disputing decisions of the umpire or "guying" their op- 
ponents. 

If a playground as a whole is guilty of gross discourtesy to a visiting 
team, or vice versa, by stoning them or calling them abusive names, the 
entire score of this playground shall be canceled, and no other prelimi- 
nary contests will be held at the ground during the season. 

The directors set out to win the points on courtesy for 
their playground if they won nothing else, and they got the 
children as much interested in it as they were themselves. In 
some cases vigilance committees of the older and better be- 
haved children were formed, which would go around and cau- 
tion any child who was saying or doing anything discourteous. 
The conduct of the children at all the meets was much better 
than that of the bystanders, and the children would caution 
them when they knew them, telling them, " We'll lose our 
points if you don't stop." The contests certainly gave these 
children as substantial a lesson in courtesy and promptness 
and loyalty as it would be possible to give them. As courtesy 
is essentially the form of an athletic contest it is as justifiable 
to give points on it as it is to give points on form in a gym- 
nastic contest. It would sound somewhat strange to give 
points on courtesy or sportsmanship in a high school or 
college contest, of course, but we seem to need some such 
device. 

Recording the Score. — The results of the three preliminary 
contests for 1907 are shown in the three following tables : 



The Play Festival 257 

Results of Playground Contest on July 24TH 





Score on 
Events 


Points on Courtesy 


Deduction 
for Lateness 


Final Score 


Ludlow Playground . . 

and 
Neighborhood House . . 


54 

35 


10 
10 






64 

45 


North Capitol .... 

and 
Juvenile Court .... 


59 

58 



10 



20 p. C. 


59 

58 


Rosedale Playground . . 

and 
Virginia Avenue . . . 


60 

75 


10 







70 
75 


Jefiferson School . . . 

and 
Towers School .... 


44 


10 
10 






52^ 
102I 


5th & W Sts., N. W. . . 

and 
Delaware Ave., S. W. 


55 
50 


Entire score of 
girls canceled 
for discourtesy 






55 
30 


Results of Contest on July 30TH 




Score on 
Events 


Points on 
Courtesy 


Deduction for 
Lateness 


Final Score 


North Capitol .... 

and 
Rosedale 


53 
82 


10 
10 






92 


Towers School .... 

and 
Neighborhood House . . 


150^ 
12^ 


10 
10 






i6oi 

22^ 


Virginia Avenue . . . 

and 
Juvenile Court .... 


75 
70 


10 

10 






85 
80 


Ludlow School .... 

and 
Jefferson School . . . 


68i 
68i 


10 
10 


15 p. c. 




68i 

78^ 



258 



Practical Conduct of Play 
Results of Contest on August 14TH 





Score on 
Events 


Points on 
Courtesy 


Deduction 
for Lateness 


Final 
Score 


Total Score of 
3 Contests 


Ludlow Playground 

and 
Towers School . . 


41 
76 


10 
10 






51 
86 


183^ 

349 


North Capitol . . 

and 
Virginia Avenue . . 


72 
52 


10 
10 






82 
62 


204 
214 


Rosedale Playground 

and 
Progress City . . . 


98 
42 


10 
10 







108 

52 


270 
190 


Jefferson School . . 

and 
Neighborhood House 


124 
29 


10 
10 






39 


275 
104I 


5th & W Sts., N.W. 

and 
Delaware Ave., S.W. 


25 
85 


10 
10 






95 


90 in 2 con- 
tests 

125 in 2 con- 
tests 



The tabulated results indicate that even with the points 
on courtesy and with a deduction for lateness, not all of the 
children were courteous, nor were they all on time at the first 
meet. At the second meet all the children were courteous, 
but not all were prompt. The third meet passed off without 
an incident to mar its record. 

After the contest is over, the director should send in a full 
report of everything to the papers, unless the papers have been 
well represented on the field. This keeps up the interest and 
serves as a good advertisement, often calling in a number of 
new children who had not been coming before. It is often 
wise for the playground supervisor to add the new score to 
the previous score of each playground and send it around to 



The Play Festival 259 

be posted up in each place, so that the children may under- 
stand just how well they have done. 

Prizes and Admission Fees. — The question of prizes to be 
offered in contests is a vexed one as it brings up the whole 
question of amateurism and professionalism. In fact the 
very idea of a prize is inconsistent with the idea of play. 
Play is an activity that is carried on for its own sake. One is 
not supposed to be hired to play. The person who competes 
for a gold watch or a gold medal is just as much a professional 
as the man who competes for a twenty-dollar gold piece. 
The difference between the two rewards is a purely nominal 
one. The one is convertible into the other. The person who 
competes for any sort of prize for the sake of securing it is not 
playing, but working. He is professional if we are to keep our 
present ideas of what professionalism means. 

The prize that is competed for, in one sense, is pay for the 
work done, but no service is rendered to those giving the 
prize, hence for them it is alms or charity. If the prizes are 
paid for from the gate receipts, then the prizes are a practical 
method of hiring competitors. There is very little difference 
between this and paying the contestants directly, but it does 
have the added value of serving to point out or distinguish the 
winner. The distinction between the right and the wrong 
use is easy in theory. The prize is supposed to be conferred 
upon the athlete for superior excellence in sport. It is Hke 
an LL.D. It honors superior achievement, but it does not 
reward it. The athlete is supposed to enter the contest for 
the sake of winning for pure glory. He should not know that 
there is any reward offered. Then the officials out of the 
goodness of their hearts and the warmth of their admiration 
step down and confer upon him a medal as the English king 



26o Practical Conduct of Play 

might confer a title or a college faculty might grant an LL.D. 
The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission grants a gold medal 
for a deed of heroism, but if they knew that the deed were 
done to secure the medal and not to save a life, they probably 
would not give it. Theoretically also the officials should 
withhold awards from all who compete for the sake of the 
prize, for by that fact they become unworthy of it. 

The most effective prizes that have been awarded in 
recent times I suppose are the Victoria Cross of England 
and the Legion of Honor of France and the Iron Cross of 
Germany. Probably none of them is worth much more 
than a penny. Yet they are the most coveted prizes in each 
army, because they distinguish superior bravery. 

The prize of the Olympic Games in Greece consisted of a 
crown of laurel leaves, placed on the head of the victor. But 
the laurel crown is famous still, and even to-day we strive to 
win our " laurels," showing how deep a hold this prize took on 
the public imagination. It is true that the victor at Olympia 
had the wall of the city taken down for him to enter when he 
returned from the games, and that he was supported thereafter 
at the expense of the state. But this does not seem to have 
been much considered. Most of the contestants did not 
crave public support, and one hears so little about this side 
of the award, that we may be pretty sure that it was not the 
thing really coveted. The real prize was not the laurel crown 
or the public support, but the honor conferred by the victory. 
To be a victor at Olympia ! What more could any one 
desire? 

The historic point of view seems to say that prizes in them- 
selves should not be competed for, that the true prize of any 
worthy struggle where we rise above the sordid need of earning 



The Play Festival 261 

a living, is the sense of achievement in our own breast and 
the esteem in which we are held by the community. One 
of the best examples is the bestowing of a title in England. 
In actual fact this ideal does not reign supreme in American 
athletics, either in our colleges or in the contests of the 
A.A.U. 

The other side of this situation is also equally simple theoret- 
ically. The idea of paid admissions is repugnant to the very 
nature of sport. The athlete is supposed to be doing this for 
sport not for money. If there is a paid admission, the athlete 
is getting the fee in one form or another, else where does it 
go ? It may come to him in the form of clothes or training 
table or railroad fare or medals or room rent or what you will, 
but in some form a large part of it is getting back to him. 
This is the most practical distinction, as it seems to me, 
between the amateur and the professional. If the perform- 
ance is charged for, then the performer is a professional. If 
the performance is free to the public, then the performer is 
an amateur. This is an idea that has meaning and that can 
be worked, whereas our present distinction has no meaning in 
regard to most contests and cannot be put into practice with- 
out infinite pains and bickerings. This is applying to the 
athletic performer exactly the same standard that applies 
to any other performer that comes before the public. 

In actual fact our policy is for the most part nearly the 
opposite of this. Neither in the college nor in the A.A.U. 
tournaments is the candidate encouraged to compete for honor, 
nor is there a noticeable tendency to make the contests free. 
We cannot expect from the street boys spontaneous ideals 
higher than those of our collegians, and we shall undoubtedly 
have to offer valuable prizes in order to secure competition 



262 Practical Conduct of Play 

in the beginning. However, we should always regard this as 
a temporary measure, and expect to replace it with a higher 
motive as fast as we can. 

The one cardinal principle that should always be held in 
view is that honor should be the reward of winning, and the 
prize should be only a designation. It seems likely that a 
prize will nearly always decrease in value as it becomes 
costly. The most valuable prizes that have ever been given 
are the laurel crown of Olympia and the hero medals of the 
modern army. Both are valueless and both are priceless. 
It seems likely that a costly medal by attracting attention to 
itself always distracts attention from the achievement which 
it is supposed to honor, but which it actually obscures. No 
soldier calculates the value of a Victoria Cross in money. It 
represents value on a different level. Not so the winner of a 
medal of solid gold ; the difference between this and a purse is 
mostly nominal. 

If we take up the prizes that are being offered in the order 
of their objectionableness, probably the worst are money 
prizes, diamonds, watches, and other articles of value. Then 
come the various solid medals of gold, silver, and bronze. 
(Bronze would not be objectionable if it were offered for a 
first prize.) All of these seem to me essentially ahke, a form 
of pay for an athletic exhibition. 

The Germans have a very good system of prizes. They 
give a crown of oak leaves to the victor and a diploma which 
recites his accomplishment in the event in which he competed. 
It is in such form that it can be framed and hung up in the 
room. It is a real mark of distinction. 

In the English schools boys who make the school team or 
acquire a certain distinction in their play have their pictures 



The Play Festival 263 

taken and hung up in perpetuity in the school. Their names 
also are carved in the oak paneling of one of the rooms. 

Our system of prizes in Washington always seemed to me 
fairly satisfactory. For the contests in the home grounds, we 
offered white, red, and blue ribbons. For interplay ground 
meets, we offered celluloid buttons. These contained a pic- 
ture of the capitol in the center and a blue, red, or green 
border, according as they were first, second, or third prizes. 
The words First Prize, Second Prize, or Third Prize were also 
written in gold letters at the top. In the contests for the 
championship of the city we offered plated gold, silver, and 
bronze medals, the set of three costing a dollar. The giving 
out of the prizes was made an occasion in itself, thus greatly 
increasing the value of the award. After we had held contests 
for four summers in Washington, the children who had been 
star athletes in the different events came to be recognized 
everywhere by the other children and this was real distinction. 

To the children the distinction conferred upon the winner by 
public notice is a more effective reward than any medal. The 
mere recounting of the story of the victory in the paper, with 
the record made, is great glory, and if your picture is also 
inserted, it is almost an Olympic reward. All of these things 
tend to create athletic sentiment which will in time make the 
honor of winning a sufficient recompense. 



CHAPTER XVI 

DISCIPLINE 

There are playgrounds in this country that are probably the 
worst places in the city for the children, so far as morality and 
social ideals are concerned. Any playground that is undis- 
ciplined, where the bully and the street loafer set the pattern 
for the other children to follow, is likely to be such a place. 
There is no magic in the word " playground " that can turn 
the loafing place of rowdies into a moral force. If a play- 
ground is to do good to children rather than harm, it must 
set certain standards of conduct and insist on these standards 
being followed. The playground bids for the attendance of 
the children on the plea that it is a moral force. It must not 
betray this confidence by allowing conduct that is unsocial. 
The playground is a method of making example potent in the 
forming of ideals and habits. But the playground that merely 
brings the children together and leaves to the determination of 
chance and physical prowess the ideals that are to prevail, 
will probably be a most successful school for the training of 
rowdies and bullies. The only protection against this danger 
is discipline. 

The conditions of discipline are peculiarly difficult on the 
playgrounds. Most of them, at present, are summer play- 
grounds open during two or three months only. The teacher 
who comes to take charge is often a novice and a stranger 
to the boys and girls. There will often be three or four hun- 

264 



Discipline 265 

dred children present, and those who are there to-day are not 
the same as those who were there yesterday or those who will 
be there to-morrow. The teacher does not know the names of 
many of them or where they live. Most of the grounds are 
not fenced. The children run out and in as they please. 
Some of us know from experience that the path of the sub- 
stitute teacher of thirty or forty pupils at school is not often 
a path of roses. If the numbers in such a case are multiplied 
by ten, the freedom of motion by a hundred, and the irre- 
sponsibihty by a thousand, we have very nearly the condi- 
tions that prevail on the summer playground. It would be 
impossible to discipline a school under such conditions. Yet 
there is little trouble in most cases on the playgrounds. 
Probably the reason is that the playground is offering the 
children what they want to do, while the school is often 
compelling a quiet which they dislike and tasks which find 
no inner response. 

DISCIPLINE BY PROHIBITION 

The traditional method of discipline has always been through 
prohibitions and in many playgrounds it has been the custom 
to post up a series of things which the children are forbidden 
to do ; but we must always remember that a prohibition of 
any kind is a challenge to the spirit of the child and may give 
him the first suggestion to do the thing which is forbidden. 

All ideas have a motor side and tend to execute themselves. 
If I hold a marshmallow in my hand, I do not need to will to 
eat it ; it will eat itself ; and any clear idea always tends to self- 
execution. If a notice is posted up that all children are for- 
bidden to throw snowballs, for instance, the only picture in 
the child's mind is the picture of throwing snowballs, and the 



266 Practical Conduct of Play 

throwing of snowballs is very likely to result. For this, 
among other reasons, no system of prohibitions has ever been 
very effective in the prevention of undesirable acts. It is 
necessary that the children understand what they may do and 
what they may not do, but no playground director will find it 
wise to rely largely on prohibitions for the securing of results. 
There are three lines of discipline which are fundamental 
to success on the playground as they are also in the school. 
They are preventive discipline, suggestive discipline, and dis- 
cipline through the other children. 

PREVENTIVE DISCIPLINE 

No form of punishment has ever been effective in preventing 
either disorder or crime; for the very good reason that the 
punishment cannot take place until after the crime has been 
committed. I believe it will be found that there are many 
homes and schools where no punishments are ever inflicted 
in which the discipline is as good as it is in the homes and 
schools where the rod is not spared, or even better. All 
punishment is a confession of weakness. Preventive dis- 
cipHne avoids it by forestalling disorder. In the days of 
Draco, in Greece, the death penalty was inflicted for every 
offense, but there is no record that people were more law- 
abiding then than now. In the sixteenth century in England 
there were thirty-two crimes on the statute books for which 
capital punishment was inflicted, but crime has never been 
more frequent than it was then. All of our prisons and 
penitentiaries are overflowing to-day. We are coming to see 
that our methods of criminal procedure are very ineffective 
and that we must create instead a condition of society from 
which crime will not arise. 



Discipline 267 

It is scarcely necessary to point out that medicine has 
already reached the stage which criminology is just approach- 
ing. We no longer deal with our typhoid problem by building 
hospitals, but by looking after our water supply. We do not 
allow people to take smallpox and then treat it, but we 
vaccinate against the disease. Better one former than ten 
reformers. If we will provide the right conditions, the diffi- 
culty will not arise. 

The time when trouble is most likely on the playgrounds is 
when nothing is going on. If the children are kept busy and 
happy, they have no time or disposition for mischief. 

Fundamentally this means, also, that the children shall feel 
so friendly to the teacher and so much in sympathy with what 
is being done, that they will not wish to get into disorder. 
On the teacher's part, this means both regard for the children 
and a habit of instant decision and action which checks the 
disorder before it is fairly stated. Most poor disciplinarians 
are people of slow decision ; they do not make up their minds 
fast enough to cope with the situation. If you step on the 
match, it is easily extinguished, but if you wait until the whole 
house is afire, it may take the fire department. Preventive 
discipline might be called also constructive discipline. It 
creates conditions from which disorder does not arise. It is 
exactly this problem of social organization that is the greatest 
difficulty of constructive statesmanship to-day. It is nearly 
or quite impossible to have discipHne of this kind unless the 
teacher is personally popular. 

DISCIPLINE THROUGH THE OTHER CHILDREN 

One of the most effective methods of discipHning any play- 
ground is by pubHc opinion. If the other children applaud a 



268 Practical Conduct of Play 

piece of mischief or misconduct, it is difHcult to quell it, but 
if they frown upon it, if the offender becomes unpopular by 
doing it, it soon ceases to amuse him. This condition depends 
largely upon the popularity of the director. If the children 
regard him as their friend, and the playground as their 
property, they soon make the disorderly and destructive 
child feel so uncomfortable that he desists. 

When the school playgrounds were first opened in New York, 
a street gang would sometimes come in like a whirlwind, over- 
turn the apparatus, throw down the director, and do as much 
damage as they could in ten or fifteen minutes, and then rush 
out again. After the playgrounds were better organized, and 
a number of gymnastic and basket ball teams had been formed, 
these teams would often take these street gangs in hand so 
effectually that they were very glad to get safely out on the 
street again. 

In any well-regulated community people are not very much 
influenced in their conduct by the laws of the realm, but are 
guided almost entirely by their own sense of what is right 
and by the public opinion of their companions ; and the same 
is no less true in the playground. If a director or teacher 
represses in the child acts which he constantly desires and 
seeks to do, it either makes a coward of him or breaks down 
his sense of self-reliance. The only sort of training which 
fits a person to be a member of a free democratic community 
is a discipline which leads him to control himself. The most 
effective method in securing this feeling and this assistance is 
through the spirit of the ground itself. 

There are a number of playgrounds in which a system of 
pupil government similar to the School City has been tried. 
There is a mayor and a common council, a chief of police, a 



Discipline 269 

judge, jury, etc. The officers are elected by the playground 
citizens who are the children of a certain age in regular attend- 
ance. It has often worked well. The children dislike a 
punishment that is inflicted by their peers more than they do 
one that is imposed by the director. The scheme teaches 
the children the forms of local government, and the machinery 
of carrying it out is interesting to them. The policemen are 
often zealous in arresting offenders, and every case gives to 
the judge and jury the training not of a mock but a real trial. 
The children feel a new sense of ownership in the playground 
and often develop a new loyalty for it. But it must not be 
supposed that self-government will run itself. It will take no 
less care and determination on the part of the director to 
discipline his ground in this way than to discipline it directly. 
The children will generally tend to inflict too severe punish- 
ments, and their interest will wane after a little if it is not 
stimulated. If, however, there are a number of capable older 
boys and girls, this government scheme gives them another 
activity that they enjoy as much as the Scouts or the Camp 
Fire and it creates a better spirit than almost anything else can. 
So, if the director is himself interested, it is worth while. 
Children of fifteen or sixteen are greatly benefited by having 
responsibility placed upon them, and they are much more 
capable of conducting such governmental affairs than they are 
usually given credit for, as the George Junior Republic, of 
Freeville, has abundantly proved. This is a very fundamental 
training for adult citizenship and gives a real insight into 
democratic government. It is apt to give the director a 
corps of efficient unpaid assistants, who will relieve him of 
many irksome details in the care of supplies, the administration 
of the swings, and other similar activities. A director ought 



270 Practical Conduct of Play 

always to have ten or twenty student assistants or leaders, to 
whom he can trust various important activities, and who will 
share with him the responsibility for success. The system 
of pupil government serves as an admirable method for the 
selection of these leaders. 

SUGGESTIVE DISCIPLINE 

There are teachers who go through the school year without a 
single serious problem of discipline and there are others who 
have many cases each day. Each may be equally capable as a 
teacher, yet disorder constantly arises in the one room, while 
it is almost unknown in the other. Carlyle somewhere says of 
Napoleon that if a band of robbers had held him up at the 
wayside, he would immediately have taken command of the 
band and marched them off to the guard house or where he 
would. In case of a Titanic disaster or a fire or a railroad 
wreck, some one is apt to take command of the others. He 
rules on account of the power within himself. One who has 
been much in command anywhere comes to assume an attitude 
which leads others to obey. This consists primarily in an 
expectation of being obeyed. The whole attitude of the 
person suggests obedience, and others obey this suggestion 
without realizing why they do it. The prime requisite for 
playground discipline is this expectation. If the director 
enters upon his duties in this state of mind, he will not have 
much trouble. On the other hand many give all their com- 
mands with a question mark after them. Their hesitation 
indicates their uncertainty. Their very gestures suggest 
disobedience to the children, and they generally get it. If the 
person can get this expectation of obedience so far down into 
his subconsciousness that it becomes a real part of his per- 



Discipline 271 

sonality, it will solve half of the problem of discipline. We 
made it a rule in Washington that there was to be no smoking 
in the playgrounds. There was a colored ground in the lower 
part of the city, which was in charge of a very slight colored 
director. She was not over five feet tall and very slender. 
A group of about forty colored workmen who were employed 
on a nearby sewer came over during their noon period, sat 
down on the edge of the playground, and began to smoke. The 
teacher went up to them and said, " Smoking is not allowed 
on the playground. You will have to stop smoking or move 
across the street." She spoke quietly, but her whole manner 
suggested that she expected them to obey, and that she would 
probably pick them up bodily and throw them off, if they did 
not do as she said. Without a word the whole gang got up, 
moved across the street, and sat down on the opposite curb. 
The teacher must remember that he has law and order on 
his side and that he can call the whole machinery of the city 
to his aid if need be in carrying out any reasonable request. 
This fear that he will not be obeyed, is often a very serious 
handicap to the inexperienced director. 

THE HABIT OF DECISION 

The methods that I have mentioned are necessary to the 
larger success of the playground and to the director really 
enjoying his job, but besides employing these methods the 
highly successful disciplinarian must also be a person of deci- 
sion of character. 

People have very different power of making up their minds. 
For some, any decision involves a painful effort which is 
always avoided whenever possible; while others make their 
decisions so easily that they are scarcely aware when they 



272 Practical Conduct of Play 

are made. A person who decides with difficulty often has to 
act when his mind is only half made up, and consequently acts 
without energy or definiteness. This is a serious handicap 
to any one who has to discipline children, because they always 
perceive this uncertainty and take advantage of it. A strong 
disciplinarian must be able not only to make up his mind 
easily and definitely, but he must be able to do it very quickly, 
so as to check disorder before it really arises and to take con- 
trol of situations at the beginning. He must also be a person 
who, having made up his mind as to what is to be done, as- 
sumes at the same time the determination to do it. This is 
just that sort of abiHty which is required in all sorts of executive 
positions, and which is probably trained more effectively in 
athletics than anywhere else. The school often unfits a person 
for decisions of this type by slowing up the processes of judg- 
ment and leading him to be too judicial — to weigh too care- 
fully the evidence on both sides before coming to a conclusion. 
No doubting Hamlet may ever be a disciplinarian. If dis- 
cipline is not natural to the director, it is all the more necessary 
that he employ discipline of the preventive type, and that he 
secure the cooperation of the children in creating the right 
spirit on the ground. But there will always be more or less 
trouble unless he is able to make up his mind quickly as to 
what to do and to stand by his decision. 

FORMS OF MISCONDUCT 

Bad Language. — When children first come into the play- 
grounds, swearing and obscene language are apt to be very 
common. They have been accustomed to it on the street, 
and perhaps to hear it at home. They come prepared with a 
mouth full of it. Suppression is difficult because the teacher 



Discipline 273 

cannot be in all parts of the playground at once, and it is 
impossible to say what language the children in other parts are 
using. However, the director must require decent language 
in his presence, and soon the children accept his standard. 
This situation is much more serious in an unfenced playground 
where the boys and girls are free to play together than it is 
where they are separated. The director cannot afford under 
any circumstances to close his ears, for if he does the better 
class of parents will keep their children away, and the play- 
ground will get a bad name. 

I once had a clergyman write me, saying that a Catholic 
priest had been in one of our playgrounds in Washington 
and, having heard some very objectionable language, he had 
concluded that they were bad places for the children. I 
wrote thanking him for the information and the helpful 
spirit in which the letter had been written. I said I did not 
doubt that the priest had heard just what he had said, but 
I was sure he could now hear it only around the edges and at 
•a distance from the director; but if he had been at that 
ground two years before, when it was first opened, he would 
have had to stop his ears to keep from hearing it all the 
time. 

At one time we opened a playground in Washington on what 
had before been an unused reservation. A gentleman without 
children and about sixty years of age owned all the houses on 
the end of the block opposite. He objected very seriously 
to our putting the playground there, and after it was estab- 
lished, he went out with his notebook and took down for a 
time all the bad things he heard the children say. He got a 
very choice collection. He sent this in to the Commissioners 
of the District and said, " I have heard all this bad language 



274 Practical Conduct of Play 

in this playground in one week, and it ought to be closed." 
Of course he had merely made a collection of street language. 

At another time, I sent a young theologian down to open a 
playground in the worst section of the city. He came back 
after a week and said : " I want to give it up. I don't think 
it is a proper place for me to be. Why, I was never at a place 
before where the boys talked as bad as the girls do down 
here." In actual fact parents and teachers seldom realize 
what the street language of their little cherubs may be. 
Children are not always so innocent and unworldly as the 
poets have painted them. Any one needs only to listen unob- 
trusively to the language of a group of boys who are pla)dng 
on the street. It will always be found, in any well-conducted 
system, that this language tends rapidly to disappear from the 
playground and, I believe, to a considerable extent from the 
adjacent streets also. 

We had one case of a boy who persisted so far in using bad 
language before the girls that we had to exclude him. The 
exclusion did not work very well, as he still continued to hang 
around the edge. We finally asked the police captain to send 
an ofEcer to the boy's home and warn his parents that he 
would be arrested if he did not desist. We had no trouble 
after that. 

Sex Improprieties. — The sex problem we have always with 
us. We may shut our eyes to it, but this will not be more 
effective than the escape of the ostrich through hiding its head 
in the sand. There are loose girls and many loose boys, who 
come to every playground. Their language and actions may 
be a constant source of evil suggestion to the others. The 
playground is probably the best place for them, but it may be 
a question if their advantage will compensate for the possible 



Discipline 275 

injury to the others. It is impossible for the director to be 
present in all parts of the playground at once or to hear all 
that is said. The conduct and language of these children will 
undoubtedly be better than it would have been on the street, 
but the playground is usually held responsible for whatever 
language or conduct occurs there, and this is often a heavy 
burden if the girls and boys are together. 

The second year the playgrounds were open in New York 
City, I was asked to investigate the relations between the 
boys and girls in the playgrounds where they were not sepa- 
rated. I first asked the directors if they had noticed any- 
thing objectionable and they said without exception that they 
had not. After a brief study, however, I was led to recom- 
mend that different yards be used for the play of the boys and 
the girls. 

In general there is no actual immorality in the playgrounds ; 
the thing that must be guarded against is suggestive gestures 
and language, the making of dates, etc. The playground serves 
as a trysting place. Of course these people would meet else- 
where if they did not meet on the playground, but the play- 
ground cannot afford to take its reputation from such actions. 
One of the first playgrounds in Washington was on an un- 
fenced reservation in the southeastern part of the city. We 
kept this open as a playground until about eight o'clock at 
night, when we took down the apparatus and the director 
went home. A very nervous woman lived on one side of this 
playground. She was without children and looked upon the 
playground as a very undesirable addition to the neighborhood. 
In her efforts to have it closed, she said that while she was 
crossing the playground one evening at ten o'clock, she 
found a young man and woman in immoral relations on the 



276 Practical Conduct of Play 

playground itself. She said she considered this a sufficient 
reason for the discontinuance of the playground. 

The fact is that sex temptations are always present wher- 
ever boys and girls in the teens meet together. However, it 
must be remembered that the danger is not from the boys 
and girls playing together. I think that it is a good thing at 
times for them to do so. The loafing together is infinitely 
more dangerous. The best receipt that can be offered, if 
there are loose boys and girls in a playground who may not be 
excluded, is to keep them busy. Perhaps the greatest safe- 
guard against improper language or conduct on the play- 
grounds is to get the mothers to attend. 

Noise. — It is the noise of the playground that causes the 
most complaint. There are always nervous people who live 
near by. There are childless people who disHke children, and 
there are sick people to whom any kind of noise is an irritation. 
If the playground is in the park, at a distance from homes, the 
noise will not cause much annoyance, but if it is in the midst 
of a residence section, it is sure to bother some one. In a 
number of cases, there has been an effort on the part of resi- 
dents of the immediate neighborhood to have the playground 
moved for these reasons, and there is frequently opposition, 
on the part of real-estate men, to locating a playground in the 
section in which they are interested. This applies especially 
to the school playground and the small municipal playground 
which occupies only a part of a square and has residences 
adjacent to it. The criticism is a natural one, and it devolves 
upon the play organizer to see that the neighbors are not un- 
duly annoyed by missiles thrown or batted, or by unnecessary 
noise. It is no easy matter to keep five or six hundred chil- 
dren, who are wildly excited over a match game of baseball 



Discipline 277 

or basket ball from yelling, but it sometimes has to be done. 
I once attended a contest in indoor baseball between two 
rival playgrounds in Washington. The girls were playing a 
good game, but the score was close, and the enthusiasm was 
running high. When I reached the ground, a good citizen 
from across the way was walking up and down across the play- 
ground and throwing up his hands. I asked him what was 
the matter with him and he replied, '' This is hell." It is too 
bad that there should be people upon whom the sports of 
children have this effect. But his protests grew so loud and I 
knew so well the sort of complaint he would send into the 
District Commissioners that I finally stopped the game. 

Smoking. — In regard to smoking there is a considerable 
difference in practice. Some systems make the rule that there 
shall be no smoking on the playground, and endeavor to keep 
spectators as well as children from it. This is impossible 
where the playground is also a pubHc park, and it is difficult 
anywhere. It undoubtedly tends to keep the adults away. 
It seems to me desirable that there should be no smoking, but 
to enforce such a rule always requires determination and per- 
sistence and often it is not worth the trouble. Whether 
adults are permitted to smoke or not, children should not be 
allowed to. Many of the older boys will come at first with 
cigarettes, but firmness on the part of the director will 
soon break up the practice. 

Getting Dirty. — One of the problems with which every 
playground worker has to deal is that of cleanHness. At 
first there were children in New York who came to the 
playgrounds so dirty that the others, especially the girls, did 
not wish to play with them. It is also noticeable that a child 
follows a lower standard when he is dirty than he does when 



278 Practical Conduct of Play 

he is clean. He lives down to the subconscious suggestion of 
his clothing and person, which tells him he is k street boy. 
Children cannot be expected to keep clean in a playground, 
but they should not look, when they come in the morning, 
as though they had rolled in the gutter on the way. In the 
kindergarten, the industrial section and the library, ordinary 
cleanliness is necessary in order to protect the property. It is 
quite possible to overdo this. I have seen playgrounds where 
the girls came every afternoon in clean white dresses, and the 
girl who did not wear one felt uncomfortable. This is cer- 
tainly carrying it too far, as a white dress is apt to be an effec- 
tive preventive of play, and the custom keeps away children 
who cannot afford such luxuries. It is a good thing to get the 
captains to look after their men, to line them up occasionally 
for an inspection, and to take pride in their appearance. The 
director may occasionally call attention to the neatness of 
some child, or appoint him to some position, because he is so 
" neat." After the habit is once started, it will generally 
look after itself if indeed it does not go too far and need to be 
curbed. 

Impoliteness. — In most cases the idea that politeness applies 
to play is new to the children. To them poHteness is a sort of 
Sunday suit which is to be put on for the parlor and the 
schoolroom. Yet if courtesy is ever to get in deep enough 
to seem more than the assumed garment of the savage, it must 
be wrought into habit in play. The English playgrounds 
train the English gentleman. The American playgrounds 
should train the American gentleman. 

Politeness is very effectively taught in play. One can 
often recognize the children who have been to a kinder- 
garten in a down-town section by their treatment of each 



Discipline 279 

other. The children are apt to think that politeness has to 
do with saying " good night " and " good morning " and 
" thank you " and " please " but that it has nothing to do 
with the common relationships of Hfe. PoHteness is taught 
in the playground in part by the imitation of the teacher and 
in part by precept. The director should take pains to be 
polite to the children. He must insist on politeness to himself 
as a necessary condition of his being obeyed. In all games 
and contests he must require poKteness to opponents as a 
part of sportsmanship and one of the necessary conditions 
of any competition. In the same way, he must enforce 
politeness to all officials by the penalty of instant disquali- 
fication or exclusion from the game. 

KINDS OF PUNISHMENTS 

In actual fact the playground director is not so helpless in 
the presence of disorder and disobedience as he sometimes 
appears at first sight. By far the commonest forms of pun- 
ishment are to exclude the disorderly child from the ground 
or from teams and contests. The exclusion, especially from 
an unfenced ground, is difficult to enforce, but the children 
seldom disobey. The exclusion from teams and contests is 
easily enforced, and is often a severe punishment. I have 
known children to cry for hours and promise full obedience 
thereafter, if they were reinstated. 

The director may always visit the parents of a disorderly 
child, or write them a note. They are generally willing to 
help. If they come to the playgrounds, their mere presence 
tends to keep down objectionable language and conduct. 

In school playgrounds, the janitor is often helpful. He 
usually knows the children better than the director does. 



28o Practical Conduct of Play 

They are accustomed to his authority, and hesitate to get 
into conflict with him. Still his discipline is often of the worst 
kind and tends to keep the children away. He is apt to be 
under a separate department of the school administration, and 
as he often does not care for the playground, since it means 
more work for him, he sometimes makes trouble and always 
needs to be handled with tact. 

If the director chooses, he may be appointed a special 
poHce officer and have the power of making arrests. This 
gives him a certain protection against rowdies, as resistance 
to an officer is a serious offense. But if the police officials 
are willing to furnish the necessary protection, it is usually 
better to rely on them. However, there are places where it is 
advisable for the director to have the power of arrest and the 
personal protection that is offered by an official star. 

In each of the Chicago playgrounds two policemen are 
stationed, but it is not certain that they have been much help. 
However, it is certainly necessary for the playground authori- 
ties to keep in close touch with the police, and to call on them 
in difficult situations, such as tournaments, etc. 

In case there is a chronic source of irritation in any play- 
ground, the director should inform the playground office about 
it, and this condition should be dealt with from there. My 
instructions to the play leaders in Washington were, " If any 
one makes trouble by destructive conduct or insulting language, 
report the case at once to the office with the nature of the 
offense and the address of the offender." 

At one time we attempted to make a rule that the large 
boys should use the municipal playgrounds, where there was 
more room, thus leaving the school playgrounds to the girls 
and the little children. This seemed necessary, because there 



Discipline 281 

was not room enough for the games of these large boys, and a 
dozen of them practically preempted the yard to the exclusion 
of eight or ten times as many small children. But these 
boys objected to exclusion and sometimes attempted to take 
revenge on the teacher. In one case they climbed on the 
high brick wall that surrounded the playground, threw in 
sticks and stones, and yelled and jeered at the teacher. 
When she was going home at night, they lay in wait for 
her with pieces of melon and other soft and juicy things. 
These boys were summoned before the juvenile court and 
j&ned five dollars apiece. We never had any more trouble 
from them. 

The first few days that the playground is open are usually 
the most difficult. The children are unknown, and they feel 
irresponsible on that account. It is often wise to have a 
policeman present until everything gets into smooth running 
order. Another period which is apt to be difficult in an un- 
fenced playground in certain sections is just at noon or at 
night when working boys or girls are dismissed from neighbor- 
ing factories and flock over to the playground. They may 
come in large numbers. They are largely unknown and conse- 
quently feel irresponsible. It is often desirable to have a 
policeman present at such times. 

The unfenced ground is more difficult to discipline than the 
one that is inclosed, because of the easy escape of the wrong- 
doer, and because street conduct does not seem inappropriate 
on a playground which is little more than an open space. All 
forms of disorder, however, are growing less from year to 
year as the playground becomes less of a novelty and the 
children come to understand what is expected. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Alumni of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. (Carrie A. Harper, 
G. H. Ellis.) One Hundred and Fifty Gymnastic Games. Boston, 

1902. $1.25. 
American Sports Publishing Co. Spalding' s Athletic Library. $.10 each. 
Angell, Emmett Dunn. Play. Comprising Games for the Kinder- 
garten, Playground, Schoolroom, and College. 90 p. Little, Brown 

and Co., 1910. $1.50. 
Baedenkoff, T. M. Portable Shower Baths; A New Departure in 

Municipal Bath Houses. Issued by the Free Public Bath Conmiis- 

sion, Baltimore, Md., 1911. Free. 
Bancroft, Jessie B. Games for the Playground, Home, School and 

Gymnasium. 456 p. Macmillan, 1909. $1.50. 
Boy Scouts of America. Boy Scouts^ Official Manual. 400 p. Doubleday, 

1911. $.25. 
Scout Masters^ Official Manual. 352 p. Doubleday, 1914. $.50. 
Bryant, Sarah Cone. Stories to Tell Children. Houghton, 1907. 

$1.00. 
Burchenal, Elizabeth. Dances of the People. Schirmer. Paper, 

$1.50; cloth, $2.50. 
Folk Dances and Singing Games. 92 p. Schirmer, 1910. $1.50. 
May Day Celebrations. 14 p. Russell Sage Foundation, 19 10. $.05. 
Burchenal, Elizabeth, and Crampton, C. Ward. Folk Dance Music. 

54 p. Schirmer, 1908. Paper, $1.00; cloth, $2.00. 
Camp Fire Girls of America. Camp Fire Girls^ Manual. $.25. 
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. List of Good Stories to Tell Children 

under Twelve Years of Age. $.05. 
Cary, C. p. Plays and Games for Schools. Madison, Wis., 191 1. 
Chubb, Percival, and associates. Festivals and Plays in Schools and 

Elsewhere. 403 p. Illus. Harper, 1912. $2.00. 

283 



284 Practical Conduct of Play 

Crampton, C. Ward. Folk Dance Book. 81 p. Barnes, 1910. $1.50. 
Crawford, Caroline. Folk Dances and Games. 82 p. Barnes, 1909. 

$1.50. 
Curtis, Henry S. Education Through Play. 359 pp. lUus. Mac- 

millan, 1914. $1.25. 
Play and Recreation in the Open Country. 265 p. Illus. Ginn, 1914. 

$1.16. 
Davis, Michael M., Jr. Exploitation of Pleasure. 61 p. Russell Sage 

Foundation, 191 1. $.10. 
Drama League of America. Plays for Amateur Acting. Chicago, 1913. 

$.25. 
Dudley, Gertrude, and Kellor, Frances A. Athletic Games for 

Women. 268 p. Holt, 1909. $1.25. 
GuLiCK, Luther Halsey. Folk Dancing. 26 p. Russell Sage Founda- 
tion, 1912. $.05. 
Healthful Art of Dancing. 237 p. Illus. Doubleday, 1910. $1.40. 
Hanmer, Lee F. Independence Day Legislation and Celebration Sugges- 
tions. 24 p. Russell Sage Foundation, 1913. $.10.. 
Hemenway, Herbert D. How to Make School Gardens. 107 p. Illus. 

Doubleday, 1903. $1.00. 
Hofer, Mari R. Children's Singing Games — Old and New. 42 p. 

Flanagan, 1901. $.50. 
Popular Folk Games and Dances. 56 p. Flanagan, 1907. $.75. 
Johnson, Clifton, Editor. Arabian Nights' Entertainment. 298 p. 

Macmillan, 1905. $.25. 
Johnson, George E. Education by Plays and Games. 234 p. Ginn, 

1907. $.90. 
Langdon, William Chauncy. Celebrating the Fourth of July by Means 

of Pageantry. 55 p. Russell Sage Foundation, 191 2. $.15. 
Lee, Joseph. Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy. New York, 1902. 

$1.00. 
Home Playground. Russell Sage Foundation, Publication No. 14. 

New York. 
How to Start and Organize Playgrounds. The Playground, Vol. V, 

No. 4. $.25. 
Play and Playgrounds. American Civic Association, Leaflet No. 11. 



Bibliography 285 

Lelajstd, Arthur, and Leland, Lorna Higbee. Playground Technique 

and Playcraft. 284 p. Bassette, 1909. $2.50. 
Lincoln, Jeanette E. C. Festival Book. 74 p. Barnes, 1912. $1.50. 
Mero, Everett B. American Playgrounds. 270 p. Baker, 1908. $2.00. 
Public Celebrations in Boston. Citizens' Public Celebration Association. 

Boston, Mass. $.10. 
Miller, Louise Klein. Children's Gardens. 235 p. Appleton, 1910. 

$1.20. 
Parsons, Henry Griscom. Children's Gardens for Pleasure, Health and 

Education. 226 p. Sturgis, 1910. $1.00. 
Partridge, E. N., and Partridge, G. E. Story Telling in School and 

Home. 323 p. lUus. Sturgis, 191 1. $1.25. 
Perry, Clarence Arthur. Wider Use of the School Plant. 423 p. 

Survey Associates, New York, 19 10, $1.25. 
Playground and Recreation Association of America. Athletic Badge Test 

for Boys. Pamphlet No. 105 A. $.05. 
Athletic Badge Test for Girls. Pamphlet No. 121 A. $.05. 
Proceedings 1907-1913. Vol. I-VII. 
Raycroft, Joseph E. Construction and Administration of Swimming 

Pools. The Play ground, Vol. Vll,Yi./\.i'j~^2>?>- New York City, 19 14. 
Stecher, William A, Games and Dances. 165 p. McVey, 1912. $1.25. 
Ward, Edward J. The Social Center. 359 p. Appleton, 19 13. $1.50. 
Wyche, Richard T. Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them. 181 p. 

Newson, 1910. $1.00. 



APPENDIX I 

A PLAYGROUND AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION 

How to Organize it and What it Should Do. — Perhaps the 
chief secret of the marvelous social progress of the last decade 
has been organization. In many lines, a development that 
ordinarily represents the slow growth of centuries has been 
concentrated into less than a dozen years ; and in most cases 
this new start has followed the organization of some asso- 
ciation, which took as its especial field the promotion of this 
idea. As the old adage says, in union there is strength. If 
twenty-five people will stand together and work unitedly for 
almost any social movement at the present time, they will carry 
it over the indifference of a hundred thousand. The rapid 
development of the play movement in this country followed 
immediately after the organization of the Playground Asso- 
ciation of America, in 1906, and the same is apt to be the case 
in the individual cities. There were in 19 14 one hundred 
twenty-five cities that had playground associations. 

Very often the playgrounds have been begun by a committee 
of the federated women's clubs or by a committee of the Civic 
Club or some other similar committee. A committee is never 
as effective as an association for the reason that the body of 
which it is a committee has various enterprises to carry on 
and it cannot give its entire time and efforts to recreation. A 
committee can seldom if ever get as strong people as an asso- 
ciation and it does not seem as important even to its own 
members. 

287 



288 Practical Conduct of Play 

How to Organize. — It is customary to launch the asso- 
ciation at a public mass meeting that is called for the pur- 
pose. In order to secure a crowd it will be necessary to 
have some well-known man speak, and it is generally best to 
show pictures of playgrounds in other cities. It will often be 
possible to get a field secretary of the Playground and Rec- 
reation Association of America to come for a week before and 
help in the creating of interest and arranging the meeting. 
Whoever is selected to assist in forming the association should 
be on the ground for two or three days before, if possible, in 
order that he may assist in setting up the meeting and creating 
interest. 

It is difficult to get people to attend a mass meeting to or- 
ganize a new association, and this should be realized in the 
first place. It is essential that the right people be there, but 
numbers are not essential. The meeting must be fully adver- 
tised in the papers. Strategic people must be called up on 
the telephone. If there is to be no effort to raise the money 
at the meeting, it may be better not to try to have many 
people present, because there probably will not be a large 
audience in any case, and a mass meeting of fifty people seems 
to indicate a lack of interest. The promoters must not be 
discouraged by a small attendance. Some of the most suc- 
cessful associations in the country were organized at very 
small meetings. 

In the organization, there are two methods that have been 
followed successfully; the one is to have a mass meet- 
ing to consider the matter. Let the subject be forcibly 
presented, have discussion from the floor, and finally vote 
as to whether or not an association is to be formed. 
This will almost uniformly be favorable, and a committee 



Appendix I 289 

should be appointed to nominate the ofhcers and another to 
draw up a constitution, these committees to report to a 
second meeting, the dates for which will be set at the time. 
Theoretically this is the proper way, but practically it 
is difficult to get people out to two meetings for the purpose 
of organizing. The first meeting may secure the people, 
but they will almost uniformly stay away from the second, 
as they will regard this as a mere matter of detail. Conse- 
quently it is often wise to have the whole meeting set up in 
advance, by which I mean that the nominating committee 
and the committee on constitution should be appointed several 
days beforehand and have a constitution and a list of officers 
ready to report. The meeting should now proceed as before 
until after the motion to organize an association. At this 
point one of the promoters should rise and move that the 
chair appoint a committee on constitution and a similar 
committee on nominations for the offices. The chair then 
names the committees that have been already selected, ex- 
plaining at the time that, anticipating this action, he had 
already asked them to prepare a preliminary report. If any 
opposition should develop or for any reason it should seem 
wise, the constitution may be reported as a provisional con- 
stitution and the officers as temporary officers to serve until 
a permanent constitution is drafted and permanent officers 
elected. The chair should call for other nominations to the 
board of directors from the floor, and the number should be 
left incomplete for this purpose. Ofttimes the chairman of 
each committee now moves the adoption of his own report. 
This prevents what is sometimes an awkward delay, though 
it is better to have some one else primed beforehand to make 
these motions promptly. 



290 Practical Conduct of Play 



OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION 

The President. — The officers of the association, including 
the board of directors, are apt to be the association in actual 
fact, and great care must be exercised in their selection. The 
president and secretary are all important, and the city 
must be gone over with a microscope to find the right people. 
The president must be a person of influence whose name 
commands respect and confidence, but it is suicidal to select 
a president, because of his prominence or wealth, who is not 
willing to give his time and thought to it. It is far better 
to select some young man who is less busy. The leader- 
ship in modern social movements often proves the easy 
stepping stone into political life, but of course no one should 
be selected who will accept for that reason. The best possible 
president is some influential business or professional man who 
has retired or who has such ample assistance that he is not 
overbusy. It is absolutely essential that he be interested and 
willing to work. It is not wise to try to persuade him to 
accept the position by saying that he will not have anything 
to do. The opportunity which it offers for service should be 
emphasized instead. 

The Secretary. — The secretary is nearly or quite as im- 
portant as the president as a rule, and may be much more so. 
The president must represent the association with the city 
government and the people of the city. He consequently 
must be well known and influential. The secretary is usually 
the connecting link between the association and the work 
actually attempted. He or she must be both interested and 
informed on the work to be undertaken. He also must be 
able to give time. In any well-established work the secretary 



Appendix I 291 

is often the supervisor of the playgrounds, just as the superin- 
tendent of schools is apt to be the secretary of the school 
board. Even where he is not the supervisor, the secretary is 
sometimes paid, as the position is likely to involve consider- 
able work in any active association. Where the secretary is 
paid, it may be permissible to choose a very busy man or 
woman for president, and to leave all the detail matters to 
the secretary. 

The Treasurer. — The treasurer should logically be the 
president or at least an influential member of some prominent 
bank. The treasurer should always be a member and gener- 
ally the chairman of the finance committee, though this does 
not mean necessarily that he should raise the money. 

The Vice Presidents. — The only place where it is safe to 
elect people on account of their position or influence, who will 
not work, is to a vice presidency or to an honorary office of 
some kind. It is often good policy to elect the mayor of the 
town first vice president, if he is interested, but at least one 
vice president should be the second choice for president so 
that he may preside if for any reason the president cannot 
be present. 

The Board of Directors. — The play movement is properly 
a pubhc movement, and soon becomes so everywhere. The 
board of directors should represent all classes of citizens and 
all the more prominent public bodies, such as the city council 
or commission, the board of education, the park board, the 
chamber of commerce, the federated women's clubs, the labor 
unions, etc. 

Work of the Nominating Committee. — The Nominating 
Committee must find out in the first place from the Committee 
on Constitution what officers are to be elected. Then the 



292 Practical Conduct of Play 

city should be gone over carefully for the right people and 
their acceptance should be secured before the meeting at which 
they are to be elected. The board should not be complete, 
in order that others may be nominated from the floor at the 
mass meeting or new discoveries may be included. It does not 
do to come to a public meeting with a paper board of directors. 
It is generally wise to get the board of directors together either 
just before or just after the organization meeting in order to 
discuss any matter that requires immediate attention. 

The Constitution. — ^The following constitution is given, not 
as a perfect document at all, but as a workable one. It will 
need to be made over and added to more or less in each place 
to make it fit local needs. 



PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS FOR 

THE — PLAYGROUND AND RECREATION 

ASSOCIATION 

ARTICLE I 

Name 

The name of this Association shall be Playground and Recrea- 
tion Association. 

ARTICLE II 

Purpose 

The purpose of this Association shall be to promote wholesome play 

and recreation for the children and adults of , in pursuance of which 

it will seek to secure (i) adequate and appropriate yards in connection 
with all schools, and the organization of play at all suitable times thereon; 
(2) the use of school buildings as social centers for the people of the 
neighborhood, and (3) the provision of adequate facilities for ath- 
letics, swimming, and other forms of physical and social recreation for 
the community, in accordance with a comprehensive plan for the city. 



Appendix I 293 

ARTICLE III 
Officers 

Sec. I. The officers of this Association shall be a president, first and 
second and third vice president, treasurer, secretary, and a board of 
directors of twenty-one members. 

Sec. 2. The officers of the Association shall be elected at the annual 
meeting of the Association. 

Sec. 3. All officers of the Association, except the board of directors, 
shall hold their positions for one year. The board of directors shall be 
elected for three years, but of the members of the first board one third 
shall hold ofiice one year, one third for two years, and one third for three 
years, those to hold the longer or shorter period being determined by lot. 

ARTICLE IV 

The duties of the officers shall be such as ordinarily pertain to these 
positions. 

ARTICLE V 

Sec. I. Membership in this Association shall be of four kinds: 
honorary, active, sustaining, and founder membership. 

Sec. 2. Honorary members shall be such persons as are elected to 
this position by the board of directors. 

Sec. 3. Active members shall be such persons as contribute annually 
from one to ten dollars to the Association. 

Sec. 4. Sustaining members shaU be such persons as contribute 
annually from ten to one hundred dollars to the Association. 

Sec. 5. Founder members shall be such persons as contribute one 
hundred dollars or more to the Association. 

Sec. 6. All members shall have the right to vote and hold office in the 
Association. 

ARTICLE VI 

Meetings 

Sec, I. The annual meeting of the Association shall be held at eight 
o'clock on the second Thursday of January of each year, unless a different 
date shall hereafter be decided upon by the board of directors. 



294 Practical Conduct of Play 

Sec. 2. Notice of annual meetings shall be sent to all the papers of the 
city at least one week before the meeting takes place. 

Sec. 3. Fifteen shall constitute a quorum at the annual meeting. 

ARTICLE VII 

Board of Directors 

Sec. I . The board of directors shall be the general executive body of the 
Association, and shall have charge between annual meetings of all its affairs. 

Sec. 2. The officers of the Association shall be ex-officio officers of the 
board of directors. 

Sec. 3. The board of directors shall meet at 4.30 p.m. on the second 
Thursday of each month, unless a different time shall hereafter be deter- 
mined upon. 

Sec. 4. Seven shall constitute a quorum of the board of directors. 

Sec. 5. The supervisor of playgrounds shall be an ex-officio, but an 
uncounted and non-voting member of the board of directors. 

Sec. 6. Notice shall be sent to each member at least four days before 
the monthly meeting of the board. 

Sec. 7. The board of directors shall have power to fill any vacancies 
on the board or among the officers of the Association. 

ARTICLE VIII 

The Expenditure oe Funds 

Sec. I. The funds of the Association shall be deposited in some 
reHable bank. 

Sec. 2. The funds of the Association shall not be expended except on 
the order of the board of directors. 

Sec. 3. The treasurer shall keep an account of the general funds and 
also of such individual funds as may be contributed for specific purposes. 

Sec. 4. So far as possible all payments shall be made by check. 

ARTICLE IX 

Committees 

Sec. I. The committees of the Association shall be an executive 
committee, a finance committee, a nominating committee, a trades 



Appendix I 295 

union committee, a woman's club committee, a chamber of commerce 
committee, and such other committees as hereafter seem necessary. 

Sec. 2. Unless otherwise specified, all committees shall be appointed 
by the president of the Association. 

Sec. 3. So far as possible the chairman of all committees shall be 
chosen from the board of directors. 

Sec. 4. The executive and finance committees shall each consist of 
five members. Other committees may have any number of members. 

Sec. 5. The president and secretary shall be ex-officio and counted 
members of the executive committee. 



ARTICLE X 

Duties of Committees 

Sec. I . The executive committee between the meetings of the board of 
directors, shall exercise all the functions of the board of directors. 

Sec. 2. The finance committee shall, in consultation with the presi- 
dent, secretary, and treasurer, make up a budget of the necessary ex- 
penses for each year, and organize the means to secure the necessary 
funds. 

Sec. 3. The chamber of commerce, women's club and trades imion 
committees shall seek to secure the cooperation of these respective bodies 
in the plans of the Association. 

Sec. 4. The nomination committee shall examine into the qualifica- 
tions of applicants for positions on the playgrounds, so far as they are 
employed by the Association, and recommend to the board. 

It shall also nominate the ofi&cers of the Association at each annual 
meeting. 

ARTICLE XI 

Amendments 

This constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of those 
present at any annual meeting, or by a unanimous vote of those present 
at any regular meeting of the board of directors, provided that notice 
of the change shall have been sent to the members of the board, at least 
ten days before the changes may be voted upon. 



296 Practical Conduct of Play 

If the members of the association are to be kept interested, 
they must be given something to do. Every member of the 
board should be on some committee, and on a committee with 
some definite task to perform. 

WHAT WORK SHOULD A PLAYGROUND ASSOCIATION 
UNDERTAKE? 

It seems to me that, on the whole, the playground associa- 
tions have not always well understood their legitimate task 
and have dissipated their efforts in doing things that did not 
legitimately belong to them. 

The Playground Survey. — The first legitimate under- 
taking of a playground association is to study its field, or in 
other words, to make a survey of the recreational facilities of 
the town. No system of playgrounds can be wisely planned 
unless the promoters know where the children are located and 
what grounds are available. The present activities of the 
children, without playgrounds, and the result in sickness, 
lack of physical development, and juvenile delinquency are 
apt to be the most important facts. However, in the past it 
has been exceedingly difficult to secure the money for a social 
survey, because there were so few people who realized the need 
of such a study. The public is coming pretty generally to 
understand the need at present, and it will not be so difficult 
hereafter. The Bureau of Surveys of the Russell Sage 
Foundation has had requests from more than a hundred cities 
to have social surveys made for them. In general, the expense 
of a survey will probably have to be borne through a few 
large subscriptions rather than many small ones. A survey 
can be made by local people at very little expense, but unless 
there is some one of experience and training to direct it, it 



Appendix I 297 

is to be feared that it will necessarily be superficial and perhaps 
misleading. It may be possible, however, for the Playground 
and Recreation Association of America to assist in such a 
survey, and there are a good many facts that bear on the ques- 
tion that are already in the possession of the city and that 
oiily need to be collected. It should be possible in this way to 
secure the number of children in the city and their ages from 
the school census, the size of the school yards from the school 
architect, and the location of public property from the various 
public departments. The records of the juvenile court, show- 
ing the causes for which children are arrested, and the sections 
of the city where most of these arrests are made, should also 
be helpful. 

The need of a survey may not even yet be evident to all, 
but I know of one association which spent almost "its entire 
effort for a series of years in trying to purchase a particular 
piece of land as a playground. During all this time there 
were several other much more suitable pieces of land that 
belonged to the city and that were available and idle. 

Making a Plan. — A proper playground system cannot be 
created without a plan any better than a house can be built 
without a design. We have a new profession of city planning, 
and many cities are now spending hundreds of thousands of 
dollars to correct the haphazard and inappropriate arrange- 
ment of their streets, railroads, and public buildings. The 
play movement is now in its first stages, and it is still possible 
to plan a play system so it will cover the city and reach the 
children. Nearly all city plans have been made under the 
direction of private organizations. It is almost impossible 
in most cities to appropriate public money for this purpose. 
It may not be wise for a playground association with very 



298 Practical Conduct of Play 

limited funds to make an elaborate plan that it may not hope 
to carry out, but certainly it ought to have a good general 
idea of how many and what sort of playgrounds and athletic 
fields are needed by the city ; which school grounds should be 
used ; which should be enlarged ; what ball fields, swimming 
pools, and recreation buildings are needed and where. Until 
it has seen this vision and has made the city see it more or 
less, it is not ready to turn the movement over to the city. 
The Education of the Public. — ^The chief work of a play- 
ground association should always be the education of the 
public to demand and support the playgrounds. It is well- 
nigh impossible to secure and maintain an adequate play 
system from private sources. If the association is to be 
really successful, it must always make the public want the 
playgrounds. There are a great many ways through which 
this education may be carried on, through the survey, through 
articles and pictures in the papers, through exhibitions, play 
festivals, public lectures, banquets, and educational campaigns, 
— the latter of which combines more or less all the other 
methods, and is much the most effective in rapidly securing 
the enthusiasm of the public. From one half to nine tenths 
of all the efforts of a playground association should be devoted 
to this end, and for this purpose no occasion of publicity 
should be wasted. The playground association must first 
see its vision and then make the city see it. The campaign 
should always result both in greatly increasing the mem- 
bership of the association, and in bringing new and in- 
fluential men upon its board of directors. It is absolutely 
necessary that an association should set itself a good-sized 
task and keep at it persistently if it is to keep the interest of 
people who are busy and influential. 



Appendix I 299 

Guiding the Play Movement. — There are many who seem 
to think that the playground association should retire from 
the field as soon as the city begins to furnish the funds ; but, 
in many ways, this is the time when the association is most 
needed. It must not be taken for granted that any sort of 
playground will be an advantage to the city and the move- 
ment. This is far from being the case. The worst thing 
that can happen to a play movement or the children of a 
city is to have an unmanaged or mismanaged playground. 
The playground that is dominated by the corner gang and that 
exhibits the ideals of young loafers and bullies, where boys 
and girls may meet unchaperoned, will probably be the most 
fruitful source of delinquency in the city. The playground 
association must see that the playgrounds are properly 
managed and that competent people are placed in charge. 
In a great many cases the money has been turned over to the 
playground association to administer or the leaders of the 
association are made into an official city commission. This 
is nearly always a wise move for the city to make in the be- 
ginning, as it secures to the city interested and intelligent 
direction of the movement by those who already understand 
the general situation. It would be a great advantage if there 
might be a similar private organization behind every city de- 
partment that would examine into its work and prevent 
graft or inefficiency. The Public Education Association is 
doing a work somewhat similar to this in a number of cities. 
We greatly need at the present some kind of private associa- 
tion behind the poUce department in each of our cities. But 
a private organization is especially needed behind a new de- 
partment which is just getting started. To turn the move- 
ment over to city officials who are not interested^ and who do 



300 Practical Conduct of Play 

not understand what is to be done, without any one's keeping 
a guiding hand on the tiller, is almost sure to run it on the 
rocks. Then too there is scarcely a city in the country that 
has more than a beginning of a play system as yet. The as- 
sociation must stimulate development until the needs of the 
city are met. 

Maintaining Playgrounds. — Besides studying the field and 
educating the people, it is nearly always necessary and best 
for the association also to maintain one or more playgrounds in 
the beginning. The advice that is usually given is to start one 
or two playgrounds, but it is little more difficult in most cities to 
raise ten thousand dollars for ten playgrounds than it is one 
thousand dollars for one playground, and there is reason to be- 
lieve that the ten playgrounds will be more successful than the 
one. It is difficult to enlist the cooperation of influential people 
to do a little piece of work, while a large task always appeals 
to large ability. The most important element in the success of 
the play system is always the supervisor, and no association 
would furnish a general supervisor for a single playground. 
The campaign for a single playground will not stir the city or 
secure the newspaper publicity as the larger campaign will. 
However, the association must not attempt to operate more 
playgrounds than it can operate properly. 

Playground associations are apt to conceive of the maintain- 
ing of playgrounds as their chief function, in the belief that 
if they start the movement, the city will inevitably take it over. 
There are not a few associations that have been doing this for 
fifteen years or so, and find themselves at present nearly where 
they were in the beginning. There are a great many other 
associations that have carried on a few playgrounds for a 
number of years and then turned them over to a city without 



Appendix I 301 

any plan for future developments or any established ideals 
of efficiency. The city was still nearly as ignorant of the 
movement and its significance as it was in the beginning. It 
took over the playgrounds because other cities were doing it, 
and mismanaged them because it did not understand what 
the movement was. It is always dangerous for the city to 
undertake a movement before it understands what it is. A 
well-conducted playground will educate its own neighbor- 
hood, but it will take a number of years for it to educate a 
city. The playgrounds that are being conducted by the va- 
rious private associations are less effective in educating the 
city to support the movement than the promoters usually 
hope, for a number of reasons. In the first place, playgrounds 
are apt to be located in foreign quarters where the influential 
people of the city do not live. They can seldom be induced 
to visit these playgrounds. In Washington, I always found 
at first that the public did not know what we were doing. I 
was accustomed to send personal letters to a considerable 
number of influential people inviting them to visit the play- 
grounds, but I never knew of more than one or two of them 
to come. We tried repeatedly to get the congressional com- 
mittee that made the appropriations to go with us in auto- 
mobiles which we would furnish, but without success. 

Besides the fact that the playground seldom reaches the 
influential people directly, it has other limitations as a means 
of public education. The playground association usually has 
very little money. It often does not own the ground. It is 
able to put up only a very cheap and temporary equipment. 
It cannot afford to fence its temporary grounds or to put in 
shower baths or toilets or wading or swimming pools. Such 
a playground can never be a great success, and it may be a 



302 Practical Conduct of Play 

great nuisance. The people who live in the immediate 
neighborhood are likely to be annoyed, and their protests 
will be heard above the complacent comment of others who 
are mildly pleased. It cannot be expected that the ordinary 
parent in a factory section will realize that the playground 
is developing the physical strength, grace, health, mental 
alertness, and social habits in his child. The mother is apt 
to look upon it as a safe place to send the children to get 
them out of the way, rather than as a means of fundamental 
education. 

An Annual Report. — The association owes it to its constit- 
uents to give an account of the funds it has administered and 
what it has done with them. The report of work accomplished 
is also the proper basis for an appeal for funds the next year. 
The facts gathered for the report will be valuable material in 
the education of the public. The report should always show 
the attendance of the children, and if possible, give pictures 
of the various activities carried on. 



APPENDIX II 

FINANCING A PLAY SYSTEM 

Cities and the people of the city will buy playgrounds on 
exactly the same basis that they will buy anything else. When 
it comes to spending money, we all come from Missouri and 
have to be shown. Since all public action here rests ultimately 
on the will of the people, the wise method is nearly the same, 
whether the money that is sought is in private pockets or in 
the city treasury. 

What Facts are Important. — It must be said, in general, 
that the facts that are most needed to carry on a playground 
campaign are nowhere obtainable at present in most cities. 
They can only be secured by a careful study of conditions. 
We may look at the question from three points of view : from 
the point of view of the city, from the point of view of the 
adults, and from the point of view of the children. 

It would appear that it is worth while for a city to maintain 
a department of public recreation, because it is just these facil- 
ities for recreation that are bringing in the people from the 
rural town and country and causing the city to grow. If 
the city does not furnish attractive opportunities for recreation, 
the people take their vacations out of town and spend their 
savings there, greatly to the financial disadvantage of the city. 
The statistics gathered in Chicago seem to indicate that an 
adequate system of playgrounds will reduce the delinquency 
by nearly one half, thus saving from another bill its own cost, 

303 



304 Practical Conduct of Play 

and saving many times as much more from the expense of the 
adult criminals into whom these delinquents would otherwise 
graduate. With the increasing appreciation of the value of 
play, play facilities are coming more and more to be demanded 
by parents. This new appreciation inevitably gets into the 
value of the real estate of the city. The furnishing of play 
and recreation facilities is almost the only bid that a city can 
make for the loyalty of the children. It may be said that the 
city is furnishing the schools, but the schools are furnished by 
the adults for reasons that appeal to adults, not to children. 
It is by its standing in regard to the newer movements that 
a city takes rank as a progressive or backward city. It would 
seem to be economy and good policy alike for the city to fur- 
nish the playgrounds. 

The effects of inadequate play facilities upon the adults of 
the city are not so evident. But the following facts are surely 
worthy of consideration. Our cities are constantly becoming 
more and more congested. The number of automobiles is 
nearly doubling each year. The streets are becoming more 
and more dangerous as places to play. The children who are 
playing on the street are slowing up all its traffic, so as to 
reduce by ten to twenty per cent its efhciency in many quarters. 
They are putting every truckman, motorman, cabman, and 
chauffeur on the street and all the parents at home under a 
nervous strain that our oversensitive city nervous systems 
can ill afford to bear. It is said that at the rate nervous dis- 
orders and insanity are increasing in this country, we shall all 
be inside of insane asylums within three hundred years. There 
is nothing that is doing more to hasten that time than the 
street play of the children. Probably the parents nearly 
always save in toys, street car fares, and soda water at least 



Appendix II 305 

as much as the city puts into the playground. The playground 
relieves the mother of the care of the older children at certain 
hours, so that she has more time for her housework and the 
care of the little ones. 

But of course it is from the viewpoint of the children that 
the playgrounds are most important, but it is precisely here 
that we have the least information. Probably the most 
disastrous effect of the street play on children is upon the 
nervous system. City children are more subject to all nervous 
troubles than country children. Havelock Ellis tells us there 
is no fourth and usually no third generation for London fam- 
ilies and that the great cities of England have to be constantly 
replenished from the country. Can we afford that any child 
should lead a Hfe that would lead to the extinction of the race 
if it became general? Perhaps the fundamental reason for 
the success of country boys in later life is that they acquire 
in the country a stable nervous system. If there is no attrac- 
tive place to play out of doors, the children stay in the house 
more than they otherwise would ; they are consequently more 
subject to tuberculosis, pneumonia, anaemia, colds, grippe, and 
all other diseases than children who have built up their phy- 
sique by a proper amount of open-air play. Children who 
have spent much time in work or gymnastics are usually awk- 
ward, while children who have been trained in play are apt 
to have the grace and the buoyant, elastic step which is always 
an element in personal charm. It is in play that children get 
nearly all of their physical strength, and in cities that make 
no provision for play, the children will be found to have not 
more than one half to two thirds the physical development 
that they have in cities where ample provision has been made. 
It is in their play that children learn to be friends and to get 



3o6 Practical Conduct of Play 

on with others. It is in their play that they acquire that 
rapidity of judgment that makes much of their practical 
efficiency in life. The child whose hands and head are full 
of play does not have time for the vices of idleness : smoking, 
gambling, stealing, obscenity, and immorality. 

These facts are the really significant basis for the starting 
of a play movement, but we have no accurate statistics in 
regard to them. In a large way, it would seem that they 
should be self-evident, and they are, in the main, to the 
thoughtful, but they are far from being so to the general 
public. The facts that are apt to be actually most effective 
in promoting the movement are the statistics of other cities 
and what they are doing. Precedent is no argument, but is 
very effective in securing action. These facts can be ob- 
tained from the reports of the Playground and Recreation 
Association of America. 

The Need of a Plan. — Before any playground association 
or body of promoters can wisely go before a city and ask for 
an appropriation, it must have some plan of what is to be 
done. The council or commission probably will not have 
thought much about the subject and will have no very definite 
ideas of what is to be done if an appropriation is asked for 
playgrounds without any specifications. Probably that has 
been the greatest single weakness in the presentation of the 
movement in the various cities, and it must be said also of 
most of the plans that have been prepared that they have 
been lacking in imagination. It is quite as easy, in most 
cases, to raise privately or to secure an appropriation of ten 
thousand dollars on a ten thousand dollar plan, as it is to 
raise five hundred on a five hundred dollar plan. To go 
before a city and ask for ten thousand dollars for playgrounds 



Appendix II 307 

without any scheme for its expenditure is asking the city to buy 
its playgrounds " sight unseen " and repose unlimited con- 
fidence in the promoters. Because playgrounds are a good 
thing it does not follow that the plans of this or that play- 
ground association are wise or worth while. An unmanaged 
or badly managed playground is likely to be worse than no 
playground at all. 

Who are the Promoters ? — Perhaps the next most impor- 
tant element in securing an appropriation, in some ways more 
important than either of the others, is that the movement 
shall have the right people behind it — people who are accept- 
able to the administration and people who have the confi- 
dence of the citizens. There are many people, especially ones 
who are not particularly interested, who seldom take the 
trouble to reason about a new movement, but judge of it 
mainly by the people who are promoting it. If the money is 
to be committed to the people who are asking the appropria- 
tion, their personnel is the only assurance that the city has 
that the money will not be misspent. To assign an appro- 
priation for some worthy movement to many a zealous but 
uninstructed and inefficient band of enthusiasts would be 
little better than throwing it to the wolves. Women are not 
as effective as men in securing appropriations from the city 
as a rule, because in most cities they are not voters, because 
they are not apt to have political influence, and because, 
rightly or wrongly, men usually have less confidence in the 
administrative abiUty of women. If the people who are 
promoting the appropriation are banded together into a per- 
manent association, they are Hkely to carry more weight and 
to receive more consideration than if they are a temporary 
committee or an unorganized body of citizens. This organi- 



3o8 Practical Conduct of Play 

zation should normally come before the facts are secured or 
the plan made. 

Must Educate the People and the City Government. — 
Having a permanent organization, the necessary facts, and a 
plan of action, the next move should be to educate the people 
to the need. Even though the objective point be the city 
treasury, it is always wise to make this appeal to the people. 
The city government will not often turn down anything that 
the people demand and for them to grant anything that the 
people do not demand may be unwise politically. If the 
appropriation is granted without the city government or the 
people knowing much about the movement that is to be 
supported, it is always a question whether it will do good or 
evil. If, on the other hand, the people of the city have once 
seen the vision, the ultimate success of the movement is as- 
sured, and it is never assured until that time. If the city 
grants the appropriation, the previous campaign of education 
will help to make it successful, and if the city does not grant 
the appropriation, the campaign has put the people into an 
attitude of mind to contribute liberally toward it. There 
are two chief ways of educating the public to a movement of 
this kind, one is through public addresses and the other through 
the press. The public address that is well reported secures 
both of these ends. 

The Appeal to the City Council or Commission. — The 
promoters will usually be assured beforehand that no appro- 
priation can be granted, but they should not be deterred by 
such information. It is worth while to go before the council 
even if it is certain that no appropriation can be granted. It 
helps to educate the council and gets them into a state of 
mind that makes a subsequent appropriation more Hkely, and 



Appendix II 309 

it is an opportunity for good publicity that costs nothing. 
It also gives the most obvious reason for a personal canvass 
for funds later. It is always well to have the endorsement of 
important bodies, such as the Federated Women's Clubs, 
the Trades Unions, and the Chamber of Commerce, and to 
have each of these organizations send in a request, asking 
that the appropriation be made. It is well also to have a 
representative of each of these organizations at the hearing 
if possible, and there is usually no difficulty about this. If 
there is any reasonable expectation that the appropriation 
may be granted, it is usually wise to have some member of 
the council pledged beforehand to move to that effect and to 
have some one else primed to second the motion. Appro- 
priations are often granted after the playground association 
has been assured that no appropriation is possible. In order 
for this appeal to be most effective, it should be presented in 
the fall before all the money has been assigned to other things, 
though it is usually possible to get a small appropriation from 
the contingency fund or some other fund at any time. Cities 
always have some means to meet emergencies. " Faint heart 
ne'er won fair lady," or a new appropriation from a city 
council. 

The Appeal to the School Board. — The majority of the 
play movement, so far as the children are concerned, un- 
doubtedly belongs to the schools, and an appropriation should 
always be asked of them ; but even if the entire movement is 
to be placed in the hands of the school board, it is still wise to 
appeal to the council, as their support is apt to be necessary 
in order that the school board may get the money. What- 
ever has been said about the appeal to the council will apply 
equally well to the appeal to the school board. 



3IO Practical Conduct of Play 



THE FINANCING OF A PLAY SYSTEM FROM PRIVATE SOURCES 

The playgrounds are becoming a public undertaking, but 
in the beginning they were nearly always a private under- 
taking. Probably the city authorities have taken the initia- 
tive in starting the movement in less than two per cent of our 
cities. The time of the private financing of a public move- 
ment of this sort will soon be past, but probably it will be 
necessary for a decade yet in many American cities. I be- 
lieve it is a good thing for the movement to be begun in this 
way, because it thus gathers around it the ones who are in- 
terested, and they feel responsible to see that it is not mis- 
managed. When the city takes the playground over, these 
people still follow it with interest and are not willing that the 
results of their efforts should be wasted by the incompetence 
or indifference of city officials. 

As has been said there is Kttle difference in the general 
method whether the funds are to be secured from public or 
private sources. In both cases it is necessary to show the 
need of the city, to form a representative organization of 
the citizens, to formulate a plan of action, and then to lay 
these matters before the people in such a convincing way 
that they will desire to see them carried out. The details, 
however, are very different in case the money has to be raised 
from private sources. A great variety of methods have been 
employed in the different cities. 

Entertainments. — A common method in some places has 
been by holding entertainments of one kind or another. 
Where the entertainment is given by the playground children, 
so that it serves as a sort of exhibition of their work, in dra- 
matics, folk dancing, and athletics, it may be well worth while. 



Appe7idix II 311 

as it serves at the same time as an exhibition for them and an 
entertainment to the pubKc. But where it is gotten up by 
the playground association for the purpose, I beheve that it 
will not be worth while. In the first place the time and efforts 
are all out of proportion to the returns. In order to secure 
a " house," it will be necessary for the friends of the cause to 
sell the tickets, and the people who have bought a ticket will 
often feel that they have contributed to the cause and should 
not be asked again. When the returns have been counted, 
it will often be found that the profits do not amount to more 
than ten per cent of the proceeds, and it would have been 
simpler for the performers themselves to have given the money 
outright. These shows have no value in educating the public 
to support the play movement, and not infrequently have led 
to a positive prejudice against it. If, on the other hand, 
some outside organization wishes to give an entertainment of 
some kind for the benefit of the playgrounds and the proposed 
entertainment is of an unobjectionable nature, it may be 
worth while, if the playground people are not expected to sell 
the tickets. Of all the entertainments that are being given, the 
society theatrical that charges a high price for a seat is prob- 
ably the most successful, and perhaps the baseball game second. 
Fairs. — Fairs are still more objectionable as a means of 
supporting the movement. They do nothing in the way of 
the education of the public, are often felt as an imposition by 
everybody, and the returns are very small in comparison to 
the effort required. Often not more than ten per cent, and 
sometimes considerably less than that, of the gross receipts 
will be profits. While this has not been true of all fairs, it 
can be said of them, in general, that they are wasteful and 
ineffective. 



312 Practical Conduct of Play 

Tag Days. — So far as the writer is aware, tag days were 
first used as a means of raising money for playgrounds in 
Dallas, Texas. The day chosen for this first tag day was the 
29th of February. The tags were handled by the federated 
women's clubs of the city, and they were called '' leap-year 
proposals." The women proposed that the men should sup- 
port the playgrounds. It brought in some $4500. The tag 
day in Philadelphia the next year netted about twenty thou- 
sand dollars, and tag days in Washington have brought in 
as much as eight or nine thousand dollars. In most cities 
the tags have been handled by women or girls or else by the 
school children. I think there is no case on record where 
men have conducted a tag day. The prices have usually 
been indefinite, thus allowing any one to contribute any sum 
he might choose from one cent up , but in Washington the 
first year, the lower limit was set at ten cents, allowing any 
one to give any amount he chose above this amount. The 
second year when buttons were used, there was a different 
button for each contribution, ranging from ten cents to ten 
dollars. 

A tag day is a fairly effective way of raising a sum not ex- 
ceeding two or three cents per capita for the people of a city. 
It is an impossible method for raising fifty cents or a dollar 
per capita. It has certain decided advantages. The ex- 
pense of running a tag day is very slight. It gets a large 
number of people to work. If it is only an occasional affair, 
and is done effectively, it begets a spirit of good will, a sort of 
carnival spirit of giving. The first year in Washington, it 
was hard to find any one on the streets without a tag. Every 
one was jolly and familiar. The canvassers were seldom ever 
refused, and the whole city was led to talk about the play- 



Appendix II 313 

grounds, as they had never done before. The tag was of 
plain manila with a green string to tie in the button hole. 
On it was printed, " I am tagged for the children of Washing- 
ton," and at the bottom " $10,000 for the children's play- 
grounds." As an advertisement of the movement, and as a 
means of raising money in small amounts, tag day has few 
equals. It should be freely advertised in adyance, so that 
every one will know what is coming and what the purpose of 
it is. The easiest way is always to have the children do the 
canvassing, but there are also certain obvious objections to 
it. 

The objections to tag day are quite as easily seen as its ad- 
vantages, and during the last three or four years, it has not 
been quite the mode for charitable undertakings. The first 
objection that is raised is that it is a sort of holdup. A 
person cannot well refuse to purchase a tag of a woman on 
the street, and if he does, he makes himself conspicuous by 
the absence of the tag. If he purchases the tag and puts it 
in his button hole, he also makes himself conspicuous and 
seems to label himself like a package of goods, which is scarcely 
good taste. If the tags sell for the same price, they do not 
secure contributions from the public in accordance with their 
ability or interest. If they sell for graded prices, they serve 
to distinguish on the street the giver of a dollar from the 
giver of ten cents, which very nearly penaHzes the small giver. 
If the tags sell for anything that the person may care to give, 
there is great danger, especially if the tags are handled by 
children, that not all of the money will be turned in. Tag 
day, in general, undoubtedly tends to promote general giving 
and to discourage large giving. It is peculiarly applicable 
in a community of working people. 



314 Practical Conduct of Play 

There are two serious charges that have been made against 
it : The first is that it leads girls into familiarity with men on 
the streets, which is socially dangerous, and the other is that 
it teaches the children to steal through the uncertainty of 
the amount received for the tag. These objections will be 
answered by not employing girls in the canvass, and by having 
all boys work under a teacher, who will serve as a foreman. 
In Washington, we had the teachers select six boys who wanted 
to work and whom they felt were entirely trustworthy from 
each of the upper grades in the schools. These children were 
sent out two and two with a bank between them, and the 
people were asked to put the money directly into the bank 
rather than give it to the children. A teacher was in charge 
of the boys who were canvassing in a certain locality. The 
women took charge of the hotels and clubs. Undoubtedly 
a tag day that is conducted by the women is the least ob- 
jectionable. 

Another strong objection that has been made against tag 
day, and this is the one that has created the sentiment against 
it in charitable circles, is that it is unfair to the other charities. 
Tag day is a drag net that takes in every one, and the next char- 
ity that comes along finds the floor swept and garnished. If 
the other charities attempt also to hold tag days, they become 
a nuisance and the public is prejudiced against charity itself. 
The most dignified and successful tag day that has been 
carried on in this country, I believe, is the one conducted by 
the federated women's clubs of Dallas, Texas. It has been 
carried on ever since the first year and by the women them- 
selves. It is for five different charities and nets about five 
thousand dollars. It has become a regular institution in the 
city. The women are very resourceful and capable women. 



Appendix II 315 

The inaugural address of the club president in 19 13 was 
largely a eulogy of tag day and what it has enabled the women 
to do. I doubt if any other women's club in the country has 
done more for its city. 

If the precautions that have been mentioned about using 
children, and especially girls, are observed in a city where 
there is a large laboring population and few large givers, tag 
day may be a Very effective means of enlisting a general 
interest and support. It is certainly one of the best adver- 
tisements that a movement can have. It should not, how- 
ever, be used, as it seems to me, for a movement that does 
not have a general appeal, as for the orphans' home, which 
should be supported, if supported at all, by a limited clientele, 
but may more justly be used for the playgrounds than most 
movements, because the playgrounds are for all the children. 
The button is probably better than the tag. 

The House and Store Tag. — While I was in Washington, 
we invented a tag for the house and another for the store. 
It was a large tag ten by fourteen inches in size, on which was 
printed, " This house (store) is tagged for the children of 
Washington," and on the bottom '' $10,000 for the children's 
playgrounds." This tag was hung on the door knobs or in 
the windows of the houses and set in the windows of the 
stores. The uniform price of one dollar was charged for each 
store tag, but some merchants took as many as two hundred. 
For the house tags the price was fifty cents and up. The 
business tags were handled by the merchants, the house tags 
by the women. There were very few refusals, and the number 
disposed of was limited almost entirely by the number of 
people available to handle the tags. It is believed that this 
tag eHminated most of the objectionable features of tag day. 



3i6 Practical Conduct of Play 

It is handled entirely by adults, and the business tag by busi- 
ness men to business men. No women are asked to stand on 
the street corner and dispense tags to strange men. The 
women do not find it objectionable to go around to the houses, 
and after the interest is once aroused, the people are glad to 
put a tag in nearly every house. In different cities different 
inscriptions have been put on these tags. It offers a wonderful 
opportunity for free advertising, which will set the whole 
town to talking about the movement at once. It is far more 
effective than any sort of newspaper publicity in getting the 
movement before the people. The store tag serves to adver- 
tise the public spirit of the storekeeper, and is probably worth 
nearly as much as it costs him. The people will be found to 
pay close attention to where the tags are placed, and to remark 
on the public spirit or the absence of it in the owners. In 
London, Ontario, we used the following tag for the houses. 
"GOOD CITIZENSHIP PLEDGE" "This house is in- 
terested in the welfare of the children of London. It will 
help to support the children's playgrounds." " Membership 
receipt in the London Playground and Recreation Associa- 
tion." This tag was printed in black on a green card and 
was rather of a decoration to a window than otherwise. The 
house tag is a fairly effective method of raising money and it 
is one of the most effective methods that has been devised for 
advertising the movement. It serves in the latter case also to 
point out the fact that good citizenship denotes a willingness 
to contribute and to work for the public good, a fact which is 
not always realized, for to many good citizenship is a neutral 
idea, meaning merely that the person is law-abiding and honest. 
The Begging Letter. — One of the simplest and cheapest 
ways of collecting money is the process letter. The usual 



Appendix II 317 

method is to make up a list of the people of the city who are 
able to give, or who have been accustomed to give to other 
charitable undertakings, and to send to these people a letter, 
stating the needs of the work and asking for a contribution. 
This letter is sometimes signed in person, but more often by 
process with a facsimile signature of the president or the 
finance committee. The top is filled in on the typewriter and 
except for its perfect execution the letter seems to every one 
a personal typewritten letter. It is customary to inclose a re- 
turn envelope for a check. This letter is often followed a little 
later by another letter a little more personal in tone, or per- 
haps by a few actual personal letters. Many national move- 
ments of a social nature are supported in this way. The 
process letter, although filled in on the typewriter, may be 
mailed from the post office unsealed with a one-cent stamp, 
but it may be a question if this is wise, as letters under a 
penny stamp are apt to be classed as advertising matter and 
to receive scant attention from busy people. The process 
letter that is effective in securing funds is nearly always 
effective, also, in educating the public to the movement, and 
may be worth its cost, as propaganda, quite apart from any 
money that may be paid in as the result of it. 

Memberships in the Playground Association. — Another 
legitimate source of income is the memberships in the play- 
ground association. These are usually of different amounts, 
but the common active membership is usually one dollar. 
Dollar memberships will not support an association financially 
in its work, but they serve to give it a wide constituency and 
thus assure it of a large moral support. These memberships 
amounted to from two to five thousand dollars a year in 
Washington, and have been a considerable sum in a number 



3i8 Practical Conduct of Play 

of cities. In Baltimore there was an effort to secure a very 
large membership at one time by a systematic canvass of the 
town for that purpose. Logically it would seem as though 
the private work of a playground association should be sup- 
ported in this way, and that may well be the case after the 
first year. These memberships are usually secured through 
personal or process letters, though it is the custom to consider 
all contributors to the movement, in whatever way the gifts 
may be made, as members. These memberships ought to be 
a permanent fund for experimentation and promotion of the 
idea in the city. 

The Paid Canvasser. — Canvassing for money is much like 
canvassing for a book. There is a certain knack and skill 
involved. Some are very successful canvassers while others 
show very small results. In general, however, it is better to 
do the work through volunteer canvassers than through paid 
ones, because the ones who have the influence and position 
to be effective cannot be hired, because the canvassing con- 
vinces those who canvass and makes them stanch supporters 
of the movement, and because the public feels that if an 
association wishes their money, it should be enough interested 
to come out and ask for it. The mere fact that the canvasser 
is paid tends to discourage giving. This is not so much, if 
at all true, in national movements. 

The Mass Meeting. — One of the most effective methods 
of raising money is a mass meeting. If the right people come 
out, and a skillful person is in charge, it is often possible to 
raise several thousand dollars in a few minutes. In a meeting 
of this kind there should be a clear and convincing presenta- 
tion of the objects to be attained and there should be an ef- 
fort to arouse enthusiasm to the point of action. The great 



Appendix II 319 

difficulty is that most mass meetings for philanthropic pur- 
poses are apt to be lacking in mass and also in the personnel 
of those who are able to give. But where the people come out 
and a skillful person is in charge, a large amount of money may 
be raised in a very short time. 

The Personal Canvass. — The most effective way to secure 
money or concessions or anything else is always the personal 
canvass. Probably the short-term building campaign used by 
the Y.M.C.A. in erecting its new buildings is the most effec- 
tive financial canvass thus far devised. A letter never receives 
the same attention that a personal word does, and again the 
personal word receives weight in proportion to the importance 
of the canvasser, the personal attitude of the prospective 
giver toward him, and the knowledge of the canvasser of the 
things to be done. The first thing that is needed here, as in 
all other methods of raising money, is a clear idea of what is 
to be done, that the public may not be asked to give to some 
indefinite purpose. Before the campaign is actually begun 
a list of several hundred names should be made up, and one or 
two large preliminary subscriptions should be secured if 
possible. It is often well to launch the movement at a ban- 
quet and secure there the agreement of representative men to 
go out on the canvass. If the banquet is decided on, there 
should be a determined effort to see both that the right people 
are there and that there are speakers who are fitted to awake 
the necessary enthusiasm. The members of the association 
must grow so enthusiastic that it will become contagious. 

In a playground campaign, it will seldom be possible to 
have the thorough organization and large number of can- 
vassers that are drafted into a Y.M.C.A. campaign, but 
it should be possible to get a few public- spirited citizens 



320 Practical Conduct of Play 

to subscribe generously, and to go with members of the 
association to see other public-spirited men of large means. 
A man who has himself given largely is always the most 
effective canvasser for a movement, and a man who has 
not himself made a contribution will find his work very 
difficult. Also the size of the contribution will be largely de- 
termined by the weight and standing of the citizen who goes 
to the prospective giver. Men are usually ashamed to make a 
small contribution to an influential and wealthy person. It 
is said that when they wished to raise a large amount at the 
Biltmore church, they were accustomed to ask Mr. Vander- 
bilt to pass the plate. It is always an advantage for two or 
three canvassers to go together, as this helps to keep up courage 
and puts the canvassers in the majority. So far as possible, 
men should see others of the same set to which they belong. 
It may be only the influential citizen who can gain access to 
certain large financiers, and wealthy men often depend on the 
judgment of certain others in philanthropic affairs. The 
canvassers should arrange, so far as possible, to take luncheon 
together each day. This serves to keep up courage and stir 
emulation. People usually dread to solicit, but nearly every 
one who has been out in this way with two or three others 
has found the work both easy and pleasant. The returns 
should be published in the papers each day, and there should 
be an effort to clear off all the large givers during the first two 
or three days. This leaves the coast free for other methods 
with the small givers and it is also much more effective. A 
city cannot be kept at the point of enthusiasm very long. 
When the proper degree of enthusiasm is reached through 
the press and public addresses, that is the time to secure the 
funds, and any delay will mean decreased returns. The 



Appendix II 321 

shorter the time of the canvass, the greater the enthusiasm 
and the more successful it is Hkely to be. 

Canvassing Teams. — It is sometimes wise to have canvass- 
ing teams and to stimulate rivalry among them. Also a 
rivalry between different professions, as the lawyers and 
doctors, may be worth while. It is very desirable that there 
should be on each canvassing committee some one who knows 
about the work and who can answer questions and criticisms. 

There is often a tendency to put this work on committees of 
women, but this is not to be advised except for the small 
amounts. Men do not, as a rule, give as largely to women 
as to men. Women are usually more timid about asking for 
large sums, and they will often secure a subscription of ten 
dollars from a man who should have given a hundred, and who 
would have given a hundred, if the right man had gone to 
him. However, the number of willing canvassers is often 
limited, and it is necessary to use the material that is at hand. 

The Canvass for a Particular Playground. — Every one feels 
to-day that the playgrounds should be supported by the public, 
that it is something of an imposition to ask for them to be sup- 
ported by contributions. In actual fact, of course, it does not 
cost any more to support them in the oneway than it does in the 
other, if the contributions can only be equally well distributed. 
The one case where this comes very near being true, is where a 
school playground is started and the patrons of the school are 
got to stand the expense. All through the South all sorts of 
things are constantly being purchased for the schools in 
this way, from stereopticons to playground equipment. If a 
subscription can be started at a good-sized meeting of the 
school patrons or if a committee can be got to call on the 
patrons of any school, the money can usually be secured for 



322 Practical Conduct of Play 

the equipment and maintenance of the playground with very 
little trouble. 

Entertainments and Contributions by School Children. — 
The entertainment that is given by the playground association 
usually will not be worth while. On the other hand the enter- 
tainment that is given by a school to raise money for a play- 
ground for the school is nearly always worth while. Our 
public schools have too few social occasions, and anything 
that brings the parents, teachers, and pupils together in a 
social way is likely to be valuable. The spirit of this age that 
is coming in is a spirit of service. Almost the only way that 
children can be trained in this spirit is by doing something 
for the common welfare. The one thing which they are 
likely to appreciate most is in providing play facilities for the 
school. This may not seem very unselfish, but it is not in- 
dividual selfishness at any rate, and it is the easiest way out 
from a selfishness that is purely individual. The school 
grounds of Indianapolis were first equipped in this way. 

Besides the entertainments, we were accustomed in Wash- 
ington to distribute to all of the children small brown envelopes 
on which was written, " Contributions for School Play- 
grounds." These the children took home and brought back 
on a designated day either with a contribution or without, 
as they or their parents determined. We used to receive 
from one to four thousand dollars a year from this source, and 
more than half of all the school playgrounds of Washington 
were equipped in one or the other of these two ways. The 
children are more loyal to a playground, when they have 
helped to create it. 

Contributions of Time, Service, and Equipment. — It is oft- 
times much easier to get contributions of time, service, or 



Appejidix II 323 

equipment than it is of money. In some cities, in the begin- 
ning, a full corps of directors have volunteered to serve without 
pay. At some of the playgrounds in Washington, besides the 
paid director, we had as many as five or six volunteer workers. 
The merchants freely contributed almost anything we asked 
for in the way of toys, balls, bats, or other equipment. 

In St. Louis, in the beginning, the carpenters' union built 
the playground houses and the plasterers plastered them free 
of cost. The mothers in the neighborhood of some of the play- 
grounds volunteered to wash the towels for the baths. The 
labor unions are nearly always willing to contribute service, 
if they are approached on the matter. This is always advis- 
able, as it not only saves money, but it secures their general 
cooperation and political support. In return they are apt to 
demand that the work on the playgrounds shall be done by 
union men, so far as it is union work. 

When the playgrounds were first begun in Minneapolis, the 
merchants, lumbermen, and contractors contributed nearly 
everything that was needed for the equipment of the play- 
grounds. 

In Pittsburgh and St. Louis free transportation was furnished 
the playground children to contests and on excursions by the 
street car companies. 

In Pittsburgh, they have a flower day once a week on which 
bouquets are presented to every child. These are contrib- 
uted by the florists and by individuals from their own private 
flower beds. 

Contributions of Playgrounds, Field Houses, or Swimming 
Pools. — Seventy playgrounds and a number of field houses 
and swimming pools were given by private individuals to 
our cities last year. More and more the current of public 



324 Practical Conduct of Play 

giving is being accelerated and more and more it is turn- 
ing into social channels. There are apt to be in each 
city certain individuals who like to be public benefactors. 
A playground, a field house, or a swimming pool will make 
a worthy memorial that will be much more decorative and 
quite as useful as a tombstone. And there are apt to be one 
or more individuals in every city, who will be glad to make 
such a gift, if the matter is once brought to their attention. 
Any of these gifts has a popular appeal that few other gifts 
may have. 

Publicity. — In order to keep up the enthusiasm and to 
give the public the knowledge that is needed for any wise 
giving, it is necessary to arrange for full publicity, both of 
the progress of the campaign and of the facts affecting its 
success. In a good many cases regular pubHcity men are 
employed. In the campaigns of the Y.M.C.A. certain men 
often go from city to city, following the different campaigns. 
They thus become expert in this especial kind of news and are 
able to discriminate as to what is important and to handle 
the press with very little coaching. So far as possible, editors 
of all the papers should be seen by a representative group of 
people before the campaign is begun and their interest and 
cooperation enlisted. They are usually willing to cooperate 
and will often publish the news on the front page. If no good 
publicity man is available or funds are scarce, it is generally 
best for some member of the association to prepare the material 
for the papers himself, for the reason that the ordinary re- 
porter does not understand what is really important, and often 
fills much space with what has little value for the move- 
ment, and which may do positive harm by distracting the 
attention from the essential things. It is never difficult at 



Appendix II 325 

the present time either to get the publicity that is needed or 
to raise the necessary funds, if a few influential people will 
give a few days to it. 

Results of the Campaign. — I am inclined to think that a 
money-raising campaign for the playgrounds is one of the best 
things that can happen to the movement. It always brings 
the play question forcibly before the people, and those who 
have given are always more interested afterwards. A cam- 
paign or two of this kind is sure also to convert the city to 
the policy of public support, in part from mere self-defense 
from personal giving. The canvassing always convinces the 
canvassers. The people who have given their time and money 
demand efhciency afterwards, both from the association and 
the city. It is often one of the worst things that can happen 
to the movement to have the city take it over in the beginning 
without any vital appreciation of its real significance. The 
financial campaign always secures many new members to the 
association. Ofttimes it should be the policy to reorganize 
the association at the end of the campaign, in order to put 
into positions of trust those who have shown an interest and 
to drop out the dead timber. The gain in interest and per- 
sonnel from a financial campaign should be at least as great 
as the financial gain. 



INDEX 



Activities, at sand bin, 55 ; miscellaneous, 
217; athletic, 217. 

Advertising, of playgrounds, 315. 

Age standard, 250. 

Ages, of children, 56. 

Angell, Emmett D., 203. 

Apparatus, 66 ; protection of, 28. 

Apprentice directors, 147. 

Athletic League, Public School, 3. 

Athletics, space for, 21; 217; training in, 
219; 24s, 247, 261. 

Attendance, on playgrounds, 176; effect 
of equipment on, 180; shade, 180; 
hours, 180; distance children come, 
181 ; time children stay, 183 ; requiring 
of, 196; 238; value of record of, 189; 
method of keeping, 190; different 
kinds of, 190; on municipal grounds, 
191 ; after school on school grounds, 
192 ; increasing the, 192 ; comparison 
with park attendance, 195. 

Badges, 252. 

Bad language, 272. 

Balancing mast, 58. 

Bancroft, Jessie, 202. 

Basket ball, space for, 23; 203. 

Bathing beaches, 109. 

Baths, showers, municipal, 108, 114. 

Beautifying playground, 34. 

Begging letter, 316. 

Boston, 8. 

Bowen, Wilbur, 203. 

Boy Scouts, 226. 

Braucher, H. S., 12. 

Building blocks, 57. 

Campaign, educational, 11; financial, 13, 

298. 
Camp Fire Girls, 223, 228. 



Camping, 224. 

Canvass, personal, 319; for particular 

playground, 321. 
Canvasser, paid, 318. 
Caretaker, 96. 

Chamber of Commerce, 309. 
Circular track, space for, 24. 
Civil Service, 160. 
Class athletics, 246. 
Classification, in contests, 249. 
Claxton, Commissioner P. P., 230. 
Cleanliness, 277. 
Climbing, framework for, 58. 
Coasting, hills for, 57. 
Consolidated school, 144. 
Constitution, of playground association, 

292. 
Construction, of playgrounds, 19. 
Contests, classification i;a, 249; Olympic, 

218, 260. 
Contributions, 322, 323. 
Costumes, 221. 

County Secretary of the Y.M.C.A., 145, 
Courtesy, 255 ; points on, 256 ; records 

of, 257; 278. \ 

Crafts, for playground, 231 ; 242. 
Curriculum of play, 197 ; minimum, 202. 

Daily program, 242. 

Dance halls, 222. 

Dancing, 219; folk, 220, 242; costumes 

for, 221; music for, 221; social, 221; 

Maypole, 243. 
Day nursery, 44. 
Decision, habit of, 27. 
Discipline, 122, 264; by prohibition, 265; 

preventive, 266; through the other 

children, 267; suggestive, 270. 
Dishes, for playground, 61. 
Disqualification, 251. 



327 



328 



Index 



Distance children come, i8i. 

Divisions, of playground, are they neces- 
sary, 32; on the school playground, 
34- 

Dramatics, 236. 

Drinking fountains, 28. 

Educational campaign, 11, 298. 

Ellis, Havelock, 305. 

Entertainments, 310, 322. 

Equipment, space for, 21 ; 66 ; manufacture 
of, 91 ; repairs to, 93 ; for rural school, 
93 ; for city schools, 93 ; value of, 94 ; 
playground without, 95. 

Ethics, of play, 124. 

Examination, physical, 219. 

Exclusion, from playground, 279. 

Fairs, 311. 

Fathers and mothers, 148. 

Fatigue, 114. 

Federated Women's Clubs, 309. 

Fence, 28; beautifying of, 36; kinds of, 

36; 281. 
Field house, loi ; of Chicago, 116; of 

Philadelphia, 117; school building 

as, 118; attendance at, 118. 
Field secretaries, 9. 
Financial campaign, 13. 
Financing, of playgrounds, 303. 
First aid, 134. 
Flooding playground, 26. 
Flowers, 40. 
Flying Dutchman, 86. 
Folk dances, 220, 242. 
Framework for climbing, 58. 
Friendship, in play, 210 ; 214, 305. 
Fuller Park, 116. 
Funds, for playgrounds, 12. 

Games, space for, 21; selection of, 197; 

invention of, 199; evolution of, 199; 

rules for, 199 ; rotation in, 201 ; team, 

207, 247. 
Gardens, 229. 
Gate receipts, 259, 261. 
George Junior Republic, 269. 
Giant stride, 87 ; location of, 88 ; locking 

up, 88. 
Girls, play of, 208 ; competition for, 248. 



Glutrin, 26. 

Good citizenship pledge, 316. 

Grass, 40. 

Groton, 96. 

Gulick, Dr. Luther, 208, 228. 

Gymnasium, outdoor, 90. 

Hall, G. Stanley, 56. 

Hand ball, in playgrounds, 23. 

Headquarters, for playground, 114. 

Height standard, 250. 

Hills, for coasting, 57. 

Honesty, in play, 200. 

Horizontal ladder, 59. 

Hygiene, of swimming pool, 102 ; 133. 

Impoliteness, 277. 

Indoor baseball, space for, 23 ; 203. 

Intellect, stimulation of, 212. 

Kindergarten, at sand bin, 55 ; 59, 234. 
Kindergartner, 242. 

Lawrenceville, 96. 

Leadership, 215. 

Lee, Joseph, 32, 59, 67. 

Library, 117; in playground, 235. 

Lighting, 27 ; cost of, 28. 

List of schools giving play training, 151, 

Loafing, 245. 

Lockers, 113. 

Loyalty, 211, 214. 

Marathon runs, 218. 
Mass meeting, 288, 318. 
Maypole dance, 243. 
Medals, 259, 262. 
Membership, 317. 
Menagerie, in playground, 43. 
Merry-go-round, 86. 
Milk stations, 45. 
Misconduct, forms of, 272. 
Moving pictures, 5, 63, 237. 
Mud pies, 57. 
Municipal baths, 108. 

Nature, on the playground, 35. 
Newspapers, 253, 258, 308, 320, 324. 
Noise, 276. 
Normal schools, 154. 



Index 



329 



Obedience to law, 210. 

Obscenity, 272. 

Office, 114. 

Official badges, 252. 

Officials, 252, 259. 

Olympic contests, in London, 218; in 

Greece, 260. 
Orchestra, 239. 
Outdoor gymnasium, 90. 

Pageant, 243. 

Park Board, 15. 

Parsons, Mrs. Henry, 230. 

Pavilion, 115. 

Phonograph, 63. 

Physical examinations, 219. 

Physiological age, 250. 

Pictures of playground, 115. 

Pipe, galvanized, 72. 

Plan, for playground, 11, 19, 21, 297; 
need of, 306. 

Play, at schools, 2 ; courses in, 3 ; at home, 
4; ethics of, 124; Sunday, 131; on 
street, 185, 204; curriculum of, 197, 
202 ; honesty in, 200 ; of girls, 208 ; 
friendship in, 210; scrub, 241. 

Play festival, 241. 

Playground and Recreation Association of 
America, 9, 10, 12, 154, 161, 162, 243, 
287, 288, 297, 306. 

Playground association, 9, 10, 287 ; officers 
of, 290, 307 ; constitution for, 292 ; 
work of, 296; membership in, 317. 

Playground directors, 120; work of, 122, 
125, 126, 253; teaching of games by, 
122; as an ideal, 124; salary of, 129; 
residence of, 129; time of service, 130; 
health of, 132 ; opportunity for service, 
132; comradeship, 132; technical 
training of, 133 ; specialists, 133 ; 
physique of, 134 ; age of, 135 ; general 
education of, 135 ; love for children, 
136; interest in children, 137; respect 
for children, 138; physical trainers as, 
139; teachers as, 140; kindergartners 
as, 142 ; social workers as, 142 ; college 
graduates as, 143; rural teacher as, 
144; principal of consolidated school 
as, 144; county superintendent as, 
14s; training of, 144, 151; nature of, 



153; after appointment, 157; county 
secretary of the Y.M.C.A. as, 146; 
paid director, 146; volunteer assist- 
ants, 147 ; apprentice directors, 147 ; 
social workers as, 148; fathers and 
mothers as, 148; reading for, 160; 
selection of, 160, 177; value of, 194; 
popularity of, 267. 

Playground plan, 11, 19, 21. 

Playgrounds, plan for, 11, 19, 21; funds 
for, 12; construction of , 19; hand ball 
in, 23 ; flooding of, 26 ; lighting of, 27 ; 
divisions of, 30; beautifying of, 34; 
nature on, 35 ; according to sexes, 42 ; 
for little children, 43 ; menagerie in, 
43 ; for older girls, 60 ; dishes for, 61 ; 
dress for, 61 ; for older boys, 62 ; for 
community, 62 ; headquarters for, 
114; pictures of, 115; positions on, 
127; attendance on, 176; who come 
to, 185; crafts for, 231; library in, 
234; exclusion from, 279; maintaining 
of, 300 ; financing of, 303 ; expense of, 
304; advertising of, 315. 

Playground site, nature of, 19; dimensions 
of, 20. 

Play movement, sources of, 6. 

Play spirit, 123. 

Police, 253, 280. 

Prizes, 259, 262. 

Professionalism, 259, 261. 

Programs, 163; nature of, 165; length of 
periods, 166; different kinds of, 167; 
general, 167; exhibition program, 168; 
for rainy days, 169; daily, 170, 242; 
for Philadelphia, 171 ; for New York, 
174. 

PubHc recreation, 4. 

Public School Athletic League, 3. 

Quoits, space for, 24. 

Rainy days, 226. 

Recreation, public, 4; rural, 5. 

Recreation commission, 14. 

Recreation supervisor or secretary, 16. 

Registration, 187; comparison with school 

records, 188. 
Residence, 129. 
Rings, 59. 



330 



Index 



Roller skating, 223. 

Royce, Professor Josiah, 212. 

Rural recreation, 5. 

Salary, 129. 

Sand bin, 48 ; benches at, 49 ; why popu- 
lar, 49 ; shade at, 51 ; need of sand, 52 ; 
kind of, 52; the sand, 53; keeping 
clean, 53 ; changing sand, 54 ; utensils, 
54; pebbles for, 55; kindergarten at, 
55 ; sprinkling sand, 55 ; activities at, 55. 

School Board, 14, 15, 309. 

Scrap book, 115. 

Scrub play, 246. 

Scrub team, 209, 210. 

Seesaw, 85. 

Self-government, 268. 

Separation, of boys and girls, 31, 

Sex improperties, 274. 

Shower baths, 114. 

Shrubbery, 39. 

Singing, 238. 

Skating, 222. 

Skiing, 84, 85. 

Slide, 81 ; home-made, 81 ; maple, 82 ; 
cost of, 82 ; steel, 82 ; gymnasium, 83 ; 
sliding pole, 83 ; use of, 83 ; effect on 
clothes, 84. 

Social center, 237, 239. 

Social workers, 142, 148. 

Spectators, 254. 

Sportsmanship, 210, 254. 

Squash, 23. 

Standard, weight, 249; height, 250; 
age, 250. 

Standard Test, 245. 

Stealing, loi. 

Stecher, William, 154. 

Storage bin, iii. 

Story-telling, 234. 

Straightaway track, space for, 24. 

Street play, 185 ; nervous strain of, 304. 

Summer schools, 155. 

Supplies, in; purchase of, 112; care of, 112. 

Surfacing, 25. 

Survey, 10, 296. 

Swimming, teaching of, 106 ; at school, 107. 

Swimming pools, 97 ; popularity of, 98 ; 
construction of, 98; cost of, 99; ad- 
ministration of, 100; force at, 100; 



towels, 100 ; stealing, loi ; season at, 
loi ; in the South, loi ; hygiene of, 
102 ; sanitation of, 102 ; diseases from, 
103 ; changing water, 103 ; filtration, 
104; cleansing, 105; sterilizing, 105. 
Swing, 57, 67; appeal of, 67; lawn, 68; 
hammock, 69; chair, 70; wooden 
framework, 70; steel framework, 70; 
height of, 72 ; pipe, galvanized, 72 ; 
fittings for, 73 ; rope or chain, 74 ; tak- 
ing in, 76; swing board, 76; height 
from ground, 77; space for, 77; 
erecting, 78 ; how children are to swing, 
79 ; turns at, 80. 

Tag days, 312. 

Teaching of swimming, 106 ; at school, 107. 

Team games, 207 ; age for, 208 ; training 

of, 299. 
Teeter ladder, 89. 
Tennis, 22. 
Test, Standard, 245. 
Time children stay, 183. 
Tobogganing, 84. 
Toilets, 113. 
Tournament, 244. 
Towels, 100. 
Trades unions, 309, 323. 
Training, of playground director, 144; 

nature of, 153 ; after appointment, 157 ; 

in athletics, 219. 
Transportation, of players, 253 ; of 

children, 323. 
Trapezium, 59. 
Trees, 38. 

Vines, 37, 40. 

Volley ball, space for, 23 ; 203. 
Volunteer assistants, 147; in playground, 
148. 

Wading pool, 45; changing water, 47; 

cement, 47. 
Walking, 223 ; in Germany, 223. 
Weight standard, 249. 
West, James E., 227. 
Wood, Walter, 208. 
Work of playground director, organizing 

play, 125; securing cooperation, 125; 

promoting friendship, 126; 253. 



Printed in the United States of America. 



n^HE following pages contain advertisements of 
a few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects. 



Education through Play 

and 

The Practical Conduct of Play 

TWO RECENT PUBLICATIONS 

By henry S. CURTIS, Ph.D. 

Former Secretary of the Playground Association of America and Supervisor of the 

Playgrounds of the District of Columbia ; Lecturer on Recreation and 

other Social Topics. 

Education through Play deals with the problem of play as it presents 
itself to the teacher, the supervisor, the school administrator, and to all those 
who are interested in educational activities. The topics treated, as indicated 
in the table of contents, are: What is Play? Play as Physical Training; 
Play and the Training of the Intellect; Play and the Formation of Habits 
and Character ; Play in the German Schools ; Play in the English Schools ; 
The School Playgrounds of American Cities ; Play at the Rural School ; 
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The fundamental assumption in the book is that play is a necessity to 
wholesome childhood and that the opportunity for play should be offered to 
every child. The treatment is suggestive of the possibilities of play and the 
conduct of play as an educational factor. 

The Practical Conduct of Play, as the title signifies, treats of the practical 
organization and administration of play. It furnishes to parents, teachers, 
and playground directors and to those interested* in promoting, organizing, 
and maintaining playground systems, the definite and detailed information 
that is necessary in order to carry out the practice of play, for wholesome and 
efficient results. 



V 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK DALLAS 

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the h)Apothetical state of Osceola in order to express in concrete 
form certain fundamental principles relating to the administration 
of public education. The hypothetical state of Osceola has organ- 
ized by a strong and helpful state department of education and 
abolished the district system of school administration, in order to 
institute a county-unit system, under which rapid and substantial 
educational progress may be made. 

Other volumes in the Textbook Series in preparation 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York 
BOSTON ATLANTA DALLAS CHICAGO SAW FRANCISCO 



BRIEF COURSE SERIES IN EDUCATION 

Edited by Paul Monroe 

A Brief Course in the History of Education 

By PAUL MONROE, Ph.D. 

Cloth^ j2fno, illustrated, xviii + 4og pages, $1.2^ 

This book has been prepared to meet the demands of students in 
education in normal, training, and college classes. This book pre- 
sents in briefer form the material contained in the textbook on the 
" History of Education." Even in the abbreviated form the book con- 
tains all the important topics set up with enough helpful material to 
give body to the subject and to indicate the relationship between 
history or social Kfe and education. 

A Brief Course in the Teaching Process 

By GEORGE DRAYTON STRAYER, Ph.D. 

Cloth, i2mo, xiv + j/5 pages, $1.2^ 

This follows the " Brief Course in the History of Education." In 
this volume several typical methods of instruction have been care- 
fully treated, and the vahdity of the particular practice indicated in 
terms of the end to be accomplished, as well as the technique to be 
used. The problems that teachers face day after day are all con- 
cretely treated. The book is the direct outcome of experience in 
trying to help teachers to grow in skill in the art of teaching. 

School Hygiene 

By FLETCHER B. DRESSLAR, Ph.D. 

Cloth, i2mo, illustrated, xi + ^bg pages, $1.2^ 

This volume contains authoritative information on all the important 
topics on school hygiene and sanitation, the information needed by 
teachers, supervisors, and school administrators on the construction 
and sanitation of school buildings, the establishment of the child in 
hygienic habits and the conduct of school work and instructions 
under hygienic conditions. 

Other volumes in the Brief Course Series in preparation 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York 
BOSTON ATLANTA DALLAS CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO 



By JESSIE H. BANCROFT 

Assistant Director Physical Training, Public Schools, New York City; 

Ex-Secretary American Physical Education Association; Member 

American Association for the Advancement of Science; 

Author of " School Gymnastics," " Games for the 

Playground, Home, School, and Gymnasium," etc. 



The Posture of School Children 

With its Home Efficiency and New Efficiency 
Methods for School Training 

The aim of the book is to aid parents and teachers to improve the 
posture of children. The failure to achieve and hold the correct position 
in childhood is the cause of far-reaching harm. Many disturbances, both 
acute and chronic, are directly traceable to poor posture and carriage. 
The application of pedagogical principles to the training of children in 
correct habits of posture and a working description of some of the new 
efficiency methods practiced in schools for the purpose of obtaining correct 
posture are authoritatively presented and applied. 



Games for the Playground, Home, 
School, and Gymnasium 

Decorated cloth, gilt top, $ i.jo 

These games have been collected from many countries and sources, 
with a view to securing novel and interesting as well as thoroughly tried 
and popular material. They range from the traditional to the modern 
gymnasium and athletic games. 

The material, aside from that accumulated through long experience 
in teaching and supervision, has been collected through special original 
research, which has resulted not only in a variety of new plays but in new 
ways of playing old games that add greatly to their play value. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York 
CHICAGO BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO DALLAS ATLANTA 



